The Yes Men

I have a pile of business and economics-related DVDs on my desk and after a pre-season Hockey tour to Barcelona I thought it was about time to make a start through them. The purpose is to have a look through some of the many suggestions that have come my way after asking for ideas for DVDs and clips from TV series that we might be able to use in the economics classroom. The Yes Men

‘The Yes Men agree their way into the fortified compounds of commerce, ask questions, and then smuggle out the stories of their hijinks to provide a public glimpse at the behind-the-scenes world of business. In other words, the Yes Men are team players… but they play for the opposing team.’

Yes Men was released on DVD in 2005 and runs to 85 minutes. The subsequent collapse of the Doha trade talks a couple of years ago does not make this documentary film any less relevant - it is built around three spoof conference presentations by Andy and Mike, two anti-globalisation protestors who have successfully duped conference organisers into inviting them to speak on behalf of the World Trade Organisation! In Finland they unleash onto an unsuspecting crowd of academics a revolutionary way for corporate management to maintain direct oversight of their workers - I wont include a spolier here, suffice to day that your sixth formers will love the idea and it could easily be used as an graphic illustration of how to avoid diseconomies of scale in a world out oursourcing and multinational manufacturing! http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=Eo-1W_8otS4 In the United States, the duo are invited by an Economics professor to outline the WTO’s revolutionary plans for re-processing digested food and giving it to starving people in the third world. The reaction of the student-audience is jaw-breakingly funny! http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=MkTG6sGX-Ic&feature=related Finally in Australia, the Yes Men announce a radical change of policy for the WTO to an audience of journalists and trade experts and the news instantly finds its way into question time at the Canadian Parliament. This DVD could sit easily in any lesson on the aims and policies of the WTO and, although it runs to 83 minutes, it is easy to introduce - focusing on the three main spoofs - leaving out much of the filming of the Yes men in transit and setting up their presentations. Good fun but worrying that people can so easily be duped. Details of their latest escapades can be found here: http://www.theyesmen.org/en/hijinks