[artinfo] Yes Men Holiday Newsletter

[The Yes Men]

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HAPPY DECEMBER 15th! May this holiday email from our family to yours
find you healthy, happy, and eager for endless adventure.

* Benefit parties for Critical Art Ensemble, Jan. 11
* Wicked Witch defeated - celebrate in DC, Jan. 15-20
* WMDs found on US TV
* Dow hoaxes planet
* Our book is fun to read, and makes a pretty nice gift for XMas or,
  really, any other holiday whatsoever. Please buy it. OK?


HOLD A FUNDRAISER FOR THE CRITICAL ART ENSEMBLE

In a crucial test of academic and creative freedom in the US, Steve
Kurtz of the Critical Art Ensemble is facing criminal charges for
making art that takes on US government policies (see
http://www.caedefensefund.org/). 

Defending yourself is costly in the US, even when the case is absurd,
and Steve will end up needing at least $150,000, of which about
$50,000 has already been raised. A number of fundraisers are being
planned for Jan. 11, the next hearing in the case; if you are
interested in holding one too, or helping out with one that's already
planned, please contact mailto:fundraisers at caedefensefund.org.

(The Yes Men are selling signed copies of their book - see below - for
$20, of which all profits will go to the Fund. Please visit 
http://www.theyesmen.org/store/#book to order.)


YES BUSH CAN BUS TOUR A SMASHING SUCCESS

The Yes Men are beside themselves with glee at having contributed to the 
massive rout of ex-"President" Bush on November 2.

Pretending to be official Bush campaigners, they stumped around the
country for the two months preceding the election in an
ass-kicking, fully USA-built, exceedingly trustworthy Bushmobile.  
After Bush was so resoundingly defeated in the Nov. 2 landslide, they
and the many who helped them breathed a great big collective sigh of 
relief.

To celebrate the inauguration of John Kerry, please come to
Washington, DC, January 15-20. Visit http://www.counter-inaugural.org/ 
and http://www.inaugurationmedia.org/ for more information. For
pictures and video of the Yes Men's "campaign," see
http://www.yesbushcan.com/ and http://www.theyesmen.org/blog/.


WMDs FOUND ON TV

Weapons of Mass Deception, Danny Schechter's must-see indictment of
the US media's coverage of the war in Iraq, is now playing in select 
US theaters. Take a friend as a holiday gift!
http://www.wmdthefilm.com/mambo/index.php?option=content&task=category&sectionid=6&id=73&Itemid=40


YES MEN REVEAL DOW HOAX

For 20 years, the Dow Chemical Corporation and its subsidiary, Union
Carbide, have been hoaxing the world by claiming they have no
responsibility for the Bhopal catastrophe of December 3, 1984.  Even
today, a person dies every day because the Bhopal plant site has
never been cleaned up. Usually, the US media completely ignore the 
anniversary of this, the worst industrial disaster in history.

On December 3, 20 years to the day since the catastrophe, Andy
Bichlbaum of the Yes Men became Dow spokesperson Jude (patron saint
of lost causes) Finisterra (end of the world), and did what Dow
won't: he took responsibility for the disaster on Dow's behalf and
laid out a straightforward ethical path to compensate the victims,
remediate the site, and otherwise help make amends.

The live announcement on BBC World Television was seen by millions of
viewers before the real Dow responded and the BBC retracted the
story. The Identity Correction was widely reported, especially in the
US. It also forced Dow to publicly reiterate that it in fact will NOT
do right by its victims (http://www.theyesmen.org/dow/).

All hopes are false until they are realized. Make a donation at
http://www.Bhopal.net and http://www.Bhopal.org and help force Dow to
put an end to 20 years of unrealized hopes.


BOOK, MOVIE, ACTION FIGURE, RECIPES

The Yes Men, a full-color book about correcting the identity of the
WTO, is available in the US and UK in English, and it's coming out
soon in France, in French. Rights are still available for a great many
languages, including Spanish, German, and some dialects of Ukrainian.
Would you like to translate it? Publish it? Wow! Please tell us more:
mailto:bookwow at theyesmen.org. See http://www.theyesmen.org/store/#book
for more info.

As for The Yes Men (the movie), it opens in February in the UK, and
in March in most of the rest of Europe. The DVD will be available
shortly in the US. The film just won the audience award at the IDFA
in Amsterdam, despite a number of more worthwhile contenders,
including The Take, Darwin's Nightmare, Liberia: An Uncivil War, and
Weapons of Mass Deception (see above). We'll post links to pages with 
showtimes at http:theyesmen.org/links/#movies.


Thank you. Please carry on with your customary holiday merriment.

The Yes Men