The Yes Men hit Bath! 11/08/09

The 'Yes Men', an award winning comedy/journalism activist duo who expose corporate greed and destruction by posing as corporate high-fliers are visiting Bath with their new award winning climate change based film 'The Yes Men fix the World'.

The film will be shown as part of a UK wide tour at the little theatre on Tuesday the 11th of August, starting at 8.30, and will be followed by a live streamed Q&A session with the Yes Men themselves and a talk/workshop from representatives of everyones favourite local malcontents, Bath Activist Network!

THE YES MEN ARE BACK WITH THEIR AWARD-WINNING SHOCK-DOC -"THE YES MEN FIX THE WORLD"

Having received standing ovations at its World Premiere at the Sundance Film Festival and winning the Berlin Film Festival’s prestigious Audience Award earlier this year, the hilariously shocking THE YES MEN FIX THE WORLD starts its UK cinema release on Friday August 7th at Odeon Panton street with a special simulcast event on August 11th with the film and a Q&A from the Yes Men themselves beamed into 20 independent cinemas around the country.

Directed by the ‘Yes Men’ (Andy Bichlbaum and Mike Bonanno) in collaboration with Bowling for Columbine and Fahrenheit 9/11 editor Kurt Engfehr, who co-directs, The Yes Men Fix The World leads us through the daring political pranks of two gonzo activists as they take on the fake identity of corporate executives in a bid to highlight the greed and brutal selfishness of some of the world’s biggest and most powerful multi-national corporations.

The film shows the Yes Men posing as Exxon and Halliburton representatives, presenting shocking and ridiculous solutions to climate change to industry audiences, as well as appearing alongside the governor of Louisiana and the mayor of New Orleans to show how government could right the wrongs done to the victims of Hurricane Katrina.

Besides covering the Yes Men's daring hoaxes, the film investigates and attacks the blind worship of the free market that has led so many corporations and government agencies to put profits before people.

The result is a hard hitting and hilarious film to inspire even the most politically lethargic into taking action. For screenings, bookings and further information go to http://www.theyesmen.org/movies/theyesmenfixtheworld

"Finally the high priests of the free market get a massive dose of the disrespect they deserve. Hilarious, therapeutic, inspiring. The Yes Men are geniuses." – Naomi Klein, author of The Shock Doctrine and No Logo

Resistance to Bathampton park and ride grows!

  Last weekend saw a large group of BAN folk and assorted direct action enthusiasts take a trip to the beautiful Bathampton meadows to plan direct action to resist council plans to concrete the area. The meadows may soon be concreted over to make way for a 1400 park and ride car-park, part of the ludicrous new transport package proposed by BANES. Even by BANES own admission, the park and ride would have only a 'minimal' effect on easing congestion, and plenty more evidence sugests it would have even less. The majority of Bath workers come to town from Tewrton and the other outlying areas of Bath, so improved bus transport, or even a tram system would make far more sense - but with £50 million to burn, BANES are bulldozing ahead with their stupid plans. The meadows are home to a large bat population, a rabbit population, large numbers of herons and cormorants and provides a hunting ground for buzzads as well as being a designated AONB (Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty). A recent meeting to discuss opposition to the scheme was packed out, with over 250 attending - many pledging to continue the fight to the end. The meadows have many features with make them easy to defend against the bulldozers, and BAN activists are busy plotting up ways to fight tooth and nail for every inch of the meadows (to get involved, email bathactivistnet@yahoo.co.uk). If BANES go ahead with their ecocidal plans, local residents and activists are set to give them a major headache - but in the mean time, find out how to object to the plans, get involved in the campaign or recieve posters and leaflets by checking out www.savebathamptonmeadows.org.uk. 

CAPITALISM IS A PUBLIC HEALTH RISK

Before taking any state-sponsored vaccine, it may be worth asking yourself: what caused this problem in the first place? Who is going to profit from this health anxiety? It may be also be worth posing the question: why is the profit motive the real enemy?

Let’s take a brief look at the pharmaceutical industry who we believe are meant to ensure the safety of drugs, and protect the public.

Awareness campaigns are commonly employed by drug companies to gain further control over what medicines are being prescribed, and to whom. GPs tend to be the path of least resistance and often say ‘yes’ to patients, prescribing drugs even though they feel it may not be the most appropriate thing to do. Often companies withhold unfavourable trial results and control what research gets published, ensuring that doctors get whichever message the company wants to promote. The State is usually in collusion, especially in times when they have no credibility, and are looking further to bolster its projected ‘caring role’ to the general public.

Still keen for the vaccine?

Usually it takes years of trials for a popular medicine to be seen as being safe, yet the new vaccine for the swine ‘flu arriving in Britain has been approved within five days, its side effects as yet unknown. Its clinical trials involved a ‘mock-up’ vaccination and, guess what, it will be introduced to the general population, while regulators continue to carry out simultaneous clinical trials. But don’t worry – whatever the nasty side effects may turn out to be, there’ll surely be on hand companies to sell us dodgy drugs for those, too.

A mass vaccination campaign against swine ‘flu was halted in the 1970s after people started suffering from Guillain-Barre Syndrome, a disorder effecting the nervous system. Yep, that’s right, swine ‘flu isn’t a new thing. The meat industry then, as it is now, is still profiting from the misery of non-human animals, at the expense of our health.

This is where we come to the cause of swine ‘flu. Smithfields Foods, Inc. are the world’s largest industrial pork producer and processor; operations of this thoughtless industry take place in Mexico, Romania, Poland, the UK, China and throughout Europe. Mexico has been cited as the source of the current infection.

Smithfields have come under criticism for storing millions of gallons of faecal material, untreated, in holding ponds. Chemicals and infectious compounds from swine and poultry waste are able to migrate into soil and water nearby. These migrating compounds can have serious effects on human health.

The role of the pharmaceutical companies is simply to exploit the situation presented by the potential of a pandemic. The process is, in principle, simple: take a virus, incubate and then kill it, dilute it, then inject it into the population. Capitalism does not have public health as its priority; its priority is to obtain profit with as low a cost and effort as possible.

The outbreak of swine ‘flu illustrates the interaction between the global capitalists. Thing is, these people may think they’re able to control us and our minds, but they cannot command and control viruses and bacteria. The industry mode of Capitalism is the real flaw: it’s their economy that’s sick, and it’s about time we killed it.

So, a suggestion… Don’t take their shit. Swine ‘flu can e fatal, nobody is denying its existence. But by managing the Media, the State has already marginalized protest. There is no conspiracy here, unless the greed of bankers and businessmen can be called conspiracy. There is no conspiracy here, unless business practices and the failure to consider anything other than profit can be called conspiracy. And if there is no conspiracy, then surely it shows the incompetence of these people, and surely a vaccine against them would be much more suitable.