Yes Men

SurvivaBall at the San Francisco action.

Photo by Steve Rhodes

SurvivaBalls are an advanced new technology that will keep corporate managers safe even when climate change makes life as we know it impossible". With this humorous introduction, a 6 foot diameter giant grub suit was unveiled and the Survivaball made its US West Coast debut.

While forward thinking people the world over are making life style changes to reduce carbon emissions, some major corporations just can't seem to get on board with legislation designed protect the planet. That's where the "Yes Men" and their Survivaballs are helping to make a point.

The Yes Men are a New York-based political action team specializing in guerilla theater to poke fun at corporations by dramatizing some of the unbelievable things they say and do.

In San Francisco, Chevron got some special attention from the Yes Men and environmental activists from Global Exchange. Antonia Juhasz of Global Exchange's ‘Chevron Action’ program calls the giant oil company one of the "largest single corporate contributors to climate change on the planet", and points out that it is the largest industrial polluter in the San Francisco Bay Area.

The Yes Men answered the call of the environmental justice group, packed up their Survivaballs and shipped them west to California.

Chevron is the focus of a world-wide corporate resistance campaign. That serious campaign took a humorous turn when Yes Man Andy Bichlbaum attended the West Coast premiere of the movie, "The Yes Men Fix the World", a documentary that follows Andy and his buddy Mike as they put up phony websites, print fake business cards, and pose as representatives from large corporations.

In a fabulous street theater action, activists in Survivaballs and others dressed as climate change-denying business executives and led the entire movie audience out of the city's historic Roxie Theater and onto the streets.

Demonstrators inside the giant suits, followed by hundreds of movie-goers made their way to the nearest Chevron gas station, stopped traffic and created an eye popping event.

Unbeknownst to the casual observer, the guerilla action was carefully orchestrated with the complete understanding of the gas station's owner, who himself is unhappy with Chevron's lack of concern for climate change. The biggest surprise though was when the city's police arrived to calm the scene, started laughing, then helped out by holding traffic so the procession could make it's way safely through the city's busy Mission district.

Larry Bogad, one of the protest participants and a professor at the University of California in nearby Davis said later, “The rich will definitely need something like Survivaball to survive the result of what they’re doing.” The theatrical protest helped expand a growing awareness that when citizens organize and change the rules of the game, big corporations have to listen!

Contact: www.theyesmen.org