back

PRINT-FRIENDLY VERSION

EMAIL THIS STORY

IT began as a relatively simple stunt. In 1999, a couple of middle-class activists from the US, Andy Bichlbaum and Mike Bonanno, decided to parody the World Trade Organisation by mimicking its website. Before long their WTO spoof page was being mistaken for the real thing and the pair found themselves invited to join the global conference circuit, where their nascent form of muckraking evolved into some adventurous episodes of performance art.

Several of their exploits have been captured in an often hilarious new documentary, The Yes Men, the latest in a growing roster of films to raise questions about corporate ethics.

Their methods are cheeky, to say the least. At a textiles conference in Finland, for instance, we see Bichlbaum - under the pseudonym Hank Hardy Unruh - extolling the benefits of cheap child labour and arguing that slavery is inefficient rather than wrong, before stripping off his suit to reveal a gold lame "management leisure" outfit appended with a metre-long phallus, which he claims was designed to help him keep tabs on the workers.

The audience seems intrigued as he struts the stage in this outrageous get-up, but is uncomfortably silent when offered the opportunity to ask questions. Can the conference circuit really send executives into such a submissive torpor, or are these delegates going along with the message?

A group of American university students turns out to be much more responsive. When shown an elaborate presentation of a new "McDonald's" product called the "re-burger", which is designed to transform human waste into Third World meals, some openly vent their anger before storming out of the lecture theatre.

An entirely different mood is created at a conference held by the Certified Practising Accountants of Australia in Sydney, where the "WTO" delivers an unexpected mea culpa, announcing that in light of all its mistakes, it will close for business and reconstitute itself as an organisation that aims to help the poor rather than facilitate the demands of the multinationals. Though clearly startled, several of the accountants appear to be genuinely moved that the face of capitalism can seem so humane after all.

But why target the WTO in the first place? For Bonanno the answer is straightforward: "[It's] a symbol of a corrupt idea that is really messing with poor people in the world," he says over the phone, explaining that "our goal all along has been to shed light on how the WTO and other organisations enable people with a lot of money to abuse their power".

Bonanno admits that he and Bichlbaum are naturally drawn to mischief-making. "But if we were to look for a deeper reason, both our families are Holocaust survivors, and we've been brought up to treat authority with a healthy sense of disrespect and sometimes humour."

Their approach has won them admiration and financial support from the musician Herb Alpert, whose foundation has donated $50,000 to keep the Yes Men show on the road.

Not surprisingly, the real WTO has shown no such enthusiasm, but it has been unable to stop the pair from carrying out their pranks. Former WTO director-general and New Zealand prime minister Mike Moore (not to be confused with the political film-maker) has denounced them, but they have yet to be prosecuted.

"We've asked lawyers and very often they can't tell us whether what we do is legal or not. We're pretending to be representatives of an organisation but not individuals who already exist, which places us in quite tricky legal territory," Bonanno explains. "Our goal is not to defraud people, so to get us they might have to prove that we had defamed them, and that could be embarrassing to them."

Legalities aside, the tactics employed by Bichlbaum and Bonanno raise ethical questions. Last December, on the 20th anniversary of the Bhopal gas tragedy, they pulled off another hoax when Bichlbaum impersonated a spokesman for Dow chemicals claiming full responsibility for the disaster, offering billions of dollars to the victims. Dow's share price immediately fell and the BBC, which broadcast the announcement, was forced to apologise.

"Dow bought Union Carbide three years ago and [insists it] didn't inherit the liabilities," says Bonanno, when asked to explain that particular stunt. "Sure, there is an issue of bearing good news that doesn't really exist, but we decided to go ahead and do it because it was the only way that we could get attention for the issue.

"It could have been seen as callous," he concedes, "but we thought that if we set an example by creating an almost parallel universe, it would force Dow to act and say that [it wasn't] going to help [the victims]."

Bonanno says their actions were supported by many of the Bhopal survivors, who were grateful for the renewed focus on their plight. But what can such antics hope to achieve in the longer term?

In the case of the WTO, Bonanno admits that little has changed. "We have learned a little more and so [has the WTO]," he says. "Back in 1999 the WTO was still a fairly clumsy bureaucracy that hadn't thought too much about public image. Now [it has] developed a very slick PR approach, but I have to say that unfortunately while the appearance has changed, the substance hasn't. It's still there to help businesses help business, and what we'd like to see is it getting businesses to help people."

But Bonanno hasn't given up on the idea of being an agent for change in the longer term. "I think that there is an incremental and cumulative effect, especially with movies like Fahrenheit 9/11 being so widely seen. Even allowing for the fact that some people hate Michael Moore, there is still information in there that you couldn't get anywhere else in the US press."

On the future of his own activism, he says that "we may not be making enough of a difference at the moment but we might down the line, and if we don't think we can, we may as well stop now."

Is it naive to think they can change the world? No, he replies, "it's pragmatism. The alternative would be to do nothing, and that's not acceptable."

The Yes Men opens in cinemas nationally tomorrow.

back

PRINT-FRIENDLY VERSION

EMAIL THIS STORY