The Yes Men

Released 2004
Stars Andy Bichlbaum, Mike Bonanno
Directed by Dan Ollman, Sarah Price, Chris Smith

This humorous documentary monitors the exploits of a group of jokester liberals who make names for themselves as they mimic members of the World Trade Organization at various venues across the globe. The absurd facade gets started when two members of The Yes Men create a web site that looks quite similar to the WTO site, resulting in the group being invited to high-level meetings and being mistaken for WTO officials.

Summary by www.netflix.com

This is not a great documentary, but I liked the Yes Men's goals. Although a bunch of it seemed to be an excuse for some gay men to spend months creating their dream costume, there was some real content in their pranks. The first one that got me was the comparison of slavery to the current off-shore labor system. They presented the current system in such a way that it actually seems cheaper than slavery. It's certainly more humane, but for much of the minimal (i.e., lowest possible) wage workers in third world countries, the result isn't much different. Both systems provide a lifetime of poverty, and both depend on the labor of young children as well as adults.

The WTO's purpose is to improve trade between the first world countries and the rest of the world by helping the former to exploit the latter's natural resources, which include labor. That's not opinion, that's fact. The opinion part comes in when you have to decide whether you agree it's appropriate. Most Republicans and even some Democrats believe the strong nations have the right to do this, while others believe we could have more equitable trade agreements that would still provide us with cheap labor but allow the poor nations to raise their poverty levels and to not destroy the environment. No one seriously thinks the rich won't exploit the poor, but we disagree on the degree of necessary exploitation. It's a matter of whether we should take as much as we can or whether we should take a lot but leave enough to improve the lives of the people we exploit. 

My favorite part of the movie was the last stunt where they dissolved the WTO in Australia. They decided to forgo the satire which their audiences had failed to recognize, and did the best thing they could to start a dialogue about the WTO's practices. I actually found this segment moving as audience members welcomed the announcement. People in the business world understand the disparity, and it's encouraging to know there are some people who actually care. We frequently see protesters in the streets engaging in all kinds of senseless anarchy. If they'd stop building giant puppet heads, and instead present coherent arguments like Mike and Andy at this press conference, the general public could become aware of the issues. If that were to happen, it's possible we could all agree to pay an extra dollar for a pair of tennis shoes. --Bill Alward, March 13, 2005