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Interview: The Yes Men: 鈥楾ake to the streets鈥�

It鈥檚 2004. Shares in Dow Chemical are tanking after news breaks that the company is to reverse its stance on the , India, at a plant run by its Union Carbide subsidiary. For 20 years, the company has resisted calls to increase the compensation offered to victims and clean up the site. Now it鈥檚 decided to commit up to $12 billion to do so.

Why the change of heart? Dow representative Jude Finisterra, announcing the decision on the BBC World TV channel, explains that it鈥檚 鈥渢he right thing to do鈥�. There鈥檚 no comparison between the value of money and that of human life, he says. Fine sentiments, but expensive ones: within minutes, Dow shares have fallen by 3 per cent, the beginning of a slide that will ultimately wipe more than $2 billion off the company鈥檚 value.

And that鈥檚 the first Dow Chemical hears about it. The company says it doesn鈥檛 have a spokesman named Finisterra, the announcement is a hoax, and it鈥檚 made no promise to increase its commitment in Bhopal. Finisterra is actually Andy Bichlbaum, frontman for audacious pranksters .

Bichlbaum and fellow Yes Man Mike Bonanno target big business and its supporters, whose hypocrisy and callousness they aim to expose. As their new film, , documents, their modus operandi is to put unexpected words into others鈥� mouths and see what happens.

Posers

To that end, they鈥檝e posed as officials of the World Trade Organization, the US Department of Housing and Urban Development, and ExxonMobil, among others, and routinely set up fake websites in the name of companies or organisations, sowing confusion about who鈥檚 really saying what. This extends to their own identities: Bichlbaum and Bonanno aren鈥檛 their real names. Sometimes the intention is to provoke shock and disgust at their targets鈥� actions, sometimes it is to ridicule 鈥� but as with other pranksters, the biggest pay-offs come when they hoodwink their antagonists into giving themselves away.

At one point, for example, they present a corporate conference with an 鈥淎cceptable Risk Calculator鈥� which determines how many lives can be lost if the profit is high enough 鈥� and sets out which nationalities can be paid off most cheaply. Their proposal is greeted with interest: it鈥檚 鈥渞efreshing鈥�, they鈥檙e told. Elsewhere, we see a host of free-market advocates bragging about how their lobbying prevented the US from signing up to the Kyoto protocol.

This approach has made The Yes Men plenty of enemies. Even some of those sympathetic to their causes think they push the boundaries of morality, and they鈥檝e been accused of irresponsibility and thoughtlessness 鈥� for example, by giving false hope to victims of the Bhopal accident. So why do they do it?

The film forgoes the unsubtle voice-overs common among films with clear political agendas, mostly allowing the footage and interviews to speak for themselves. There are slightly patronising descriptions of the free-market ethos throughout the film, but they are sporadic and short-lived. There are also statements about the need for government regulation to protect human rights from being squashed in the pursuit of profit. But for the rest of the time the Yes Men leave it to the audience to draw their own conclusions.

Should, can鈥檛

Mine are that the Yes Men present visions of the world as it might be if ideas and minds weren鈥檛 chained by 鈥渟hould鈥� and 鈥渃an鈥檛鈥� 鈥� what real change might look like. The film culminates in this way, with the distribution of 80,000 copies of a fake edition of The New York Times. The cover date is six months into the future, and the spoof paper reports the end of the Iraq war and the switch to a 鈥渟ane鈥� economic regime, as well as advertisements from companies promising to dedicate themselves to good causes.

Impossible? Perhaps, but you could say the same about two ordinary men walking into the BBC and passing themselves off as representatives of one of the world鈥檚 biggest companies. 鈥淐an鈥檛鈥� is an over-used word.

The Yes Men Fix The World is showing in cinemas across the UK and will open in the US in October.

Interview: The Yes Men: 鈥楾ake to the streets鈥�