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Unauthorized Special Edition of the Washington Post: “Trump Flees White House”
“Bye-Bye 45” offers road map to creating the near future we want and need

Contact: byebye45@theyesmen.org
For a physical copy of the paper, visit our store or donate to the gofundme.
Newspaper website: democracyawakensinaction.org
Photos: a few here, and also here, here, here, etc.
Press: lots of it, here!

Early this morning, thousands of commuters in Washington, D.C. were handed a spitting image of the Washington Post. But this one was dated May 1, 2019 — and in lieu of the Post’s usual tagline, "Democracy Dies in Darkness," the phrase "Democracy Awakens in Action” appeared at the top. The paper's lead headline: “Unpresidented: Trump Hastily Departs White House, Ending Crisis.” (An online version of the paper has also been making the rounds, at democracyawakensinaction.org, complete with PDF of the print version.)

A scan of the paper's front page offers up a compelling backstory for Trump's flight: a women-led, multi-racial grassroots resistance. Their winning strategy is borrowed from other movements against authoritarian rulers: target those who support the tyrant, rather than the tyrant himself.

That strategy has also led to growing support for a package of groundbreaking progressive legislation known as the "Bundle": 64 bills sure to be popular across the political spectrum, including some — the Green New Deal bills, Medicare for All, the H.R. 1 election reform bill — that already are.

“The story this paper tells is more reasonable than our current reality,” says author Onnesha Roychoudhuri, who created the paper together with author L.A. Kauffman and trickster activist collective the Yes Men. “And it’s anything but far-fetched. We’re already seeing unprecedented levels of protest and resistance. Now we just need to ask ourselves: What’s next? This paper offers a blueprint to help us reclaim our democracy.”

Also included in the paper is an action guide, “Bye-Bye 45: A Guide to Bringing Him Down,” in which leading strategists outline ways to bring about the paper's ambitious vision.

The special Post edition outlines other elements of this very possible near-future: Mike Pence is sworn in for a “clipped-duck” term—held in check by the millions of Americans who have mobilized, protested, occupied their elected officials’ offices, and otherwise thrown sand in the gears of his predecessor’s tyrannical presidency. The “actions that turned the tide,” according to the paper, are diverse and colorful, and include widespread, everyday resistance like ride-share drivers refusing to pick up Trump administration officials. Larger-scale actions include sticky and rambunctious “sippy-cup sit-ins,” in which mothers with young children occupy their representatives’ offices until they agree to stop cooperating with Trump. And there's also a “wall of floof,” in which young women in quinceañera gowns use their layers of taffeta to blockade a government building.

“This newspaper is a fantasy,” says Kauffman, “but it’s rooted in both reality and scholarship. Our stories build on real-world resistance to Trump and insights about how ordinary people can dislodge an unfit leader.”  

Dear Friend,

We have great news: As of Friday, we have an official partnership with a huge progressive organization with millions of members, who will help get our secret project to a giant swath of Americans. We can now think really big! And to pull this off at the change-making scale that's now, thanks to our new partnership, possible, we're upping our campaign goal to $60,000. (Our partner org is, rightly, using their finances for the midterm elections.)

Your incredible enthusiasm—in its very first day, our campaign exceeded all expectations, and in only five days we reached our four-week goal—shows how badly we're all craving something to keep the 2018 midterms momentum going, and not only help rid the land of the orange menace, but steer us to a future (almost) everyone can get excited about.

We can't tell you how grateful we are for your incredible support. We're exploring all fundraising avenues for this expanded project (please email us if you have any ideas!), but we also need you, our community, now more than ever. Please donate if you're able, if you haven't already—it's tax-deductible, and for donations of $60 or more we'll send you a lovely souvenir.

And even if you can't, please take two minutes to spread our campaign by sharing the post at the top of our Facebook page, or retweeting our twitter post, or adapting the below text for your social media poison of choice:

I'm helping the Yes Men's new (secret!) project to make a great post-Trump world! Join us at https://bit.ly/2ogTF5U #ByeBye45 #HelloBetterWorld #Resist @theyesmen

THANK YOU for everything you've already done. And finally: please, please, please get involved in a Midterm election near you. Sure, elections are only the start of taking our country back—but they're definitely an essential one.

Love,
The Yes Men and friends

P.S. We want more than your money—we want YOU… to help when this action rolls out. If you haven’t already, please visit your profile by entering your email on our front page, lower left, and let us know (more or less) where you live!

#WECALLBS ON THE NRA'S VERY EXISTENCE
New Yes Men film highlights fundamental racism of modern gun lobby

Available formats: YouTube, Facebook

(Feb. 28, 2018) In the wake of the Parkland shooting and the inspiring activism of teen survivors from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, the National Rifle Association and its Republican partners are facing intense scrutiny for their critical role in the rise of mass shootings and of homicides overall in America.

The NRA’s unhinged rhetoric and utter lack of remorse have been on full display since the horrific gun massacre at Stoneman Douglas two weeks ago. Spokesperson Dana Loesch (notorious for her recent ads that seem to be mustering NRA supporters into a pro-Trump paramilitary) even seemed to blame the media for the shootings, while NRA President Wayne LaPierre spewed more of his usual "arm the teachers" lunacy (promptly parroted by the current occupant of the Oval Office).

A short Yes Men film, completed in August 2017 and launched today on YouTube, uses shock humor to remind us where the NRA's lunacy and ugliness come from: FEAR—specifically, the profoundly terrified racism of the '70s. Featuring a Yes Men hoax performed June 22, 2016 at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, the film tells:

• how Republicans—in a terrified reaction to the Black Panthers' performative activism—once promoted the first gun-control legislation;
• how, once the Black Power movement was crushed, Republicans began calling for looser gun-control legislation, presumably for (white) "defense";
• how the NRA, once a moderate organization, became a tool of racist Republican fear when it was hijacked by extremists including LaPierre, its current president; and
• how fear of a Black uprising partly morphed into the right-wing street's signature terror of "government" (which in its best form, after all, is just another word for "people power").

The film communicates how the NRA and the Republican Party, tapping into deep racist fear for their power and profit, have turned America into the most violent high-income country in the world by a truly immense margin, both overall and specifically. (We have 7 times the homicide rate, and 25 times the rate of gun deaths, of the average high-income country—mainly thanks to Republicans and the NRA.)

The film also features a comical encounter with the NRA's Dana "Paramilitary" Loesch and her sinister, truth-indifferent "debate" techniques that so spectacularly failed at CNN’s Town Hall last week when she tried to use them against Parkland school shooting survivor Emma González.

With this film, the Yes Men wish to join the students of Stoneman Douglas (and many others before them) in calling B.S. on the NRA’s very existence. Please support them, and the nationwide #NeverAgain movement:

• Students can organize walkouts wherever they are.
• Anyone can attend or support the March For Our Lives.
• College students can skip Florida for spring break, because money seems to be the only thing that talks to some people.
• And most importantly, EVERYONE needs to do whatever we can to make sure the politicians who have so much blood on their hands never work in D.C. again.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 5, 2017

Bicycle Hoax Highlights Soulless Cycle
Belgian collective, in cahoots with refugee groups and the Yes Lab, hits hard at European policy towards refugees, false market solutions, assholes

Hundreds of spectators witnessed a bizarre spectacle Saturday, when a slick new tech startup called RefuGreenErgy held a three-hour launch event in central Brussels. The event featured four "RefuGreens" (actual refugees) happily pedaling battery-filling bikes while "company representatives" (actually activists) described to tourists and others how the refugees were producing "green" electricity they could buy; the refugees, in exchange, would get 24-hour periods of amnesty and 1.60 euros per day. "It's a guilt-free way to help others," explained one representative.

Reactions ranged from quiet approval to horror. The hoax was finally exposed when, after two "company officials" explained the concept to an assembled crowd, a member of the public, a man who works with refugees, spoke up emotionally against the concept, and the "officials" admitted it was a hoax. (See footage here.) At that point, Saïd Elouizi, a member of Brussels collective Voix des Sans-Papiers (Voice of the Undocumented), spoke of the importance of taking action as citizens: "We need to react to every speech and act, and not remain passive consumers.... Solidarity is our power."

The hoax, by WAAR (We Are All Refugees, a group of "artivists" from Belgium and abroad, working in cahoots with refugee groups and the Yes Men) was carried out in the capital city of Europe in part because refugees are constantly threatened, deported, and locked up by many European states, including Belgium. One Belgian politician, Theo Francken, has even brought agents from Sudan—whose president is under an international arrest warrant—to identify Sudanese refugees so that they can be deported back to the danger they fled.

The hoax was designed to call attention to the moral responsibility of countries like Belgium for the so-called "refugee crisis." 

“There are increasing numbers of climate refugees—perhaps 250 million by 2050," said WAAR member Zelda, referring to a United Nations report. "Climate change is caused by the industrial countries, and they bear responsibility for it."

"If we want to look at deeper causes of the wars and violence that force refugees to flee, it's not a big stretch to see our colonial history as a root cause," said WAAR member Hélène.

Another WAAR member noted that European colonial history continues as companies cause large-scale conflicts that force citizens to flee, as in the case of Areva in Mali.

"Our objective was to highlight the logic by which capitalism deals with and takes advantage of crises—even those that it's caused," the activist explained. "Faced with the ecological crisis of climate change, many companies respond with solutions that serve the objective of profit, without having any concrete effect on the problem itself. A horrible idea like RefuGreenErgy is sadly plausible, thanks to the 'Uberization' of society, ‘greenwashing,’ and the utopian view that the unregulated market can fix the world."

The hoax has so far received coverage in several Belgian media outlets. WAAR also launched a website, a promotional video, and Facebook and Twitter accounts. The hoax was developed during a week-long workshop with The Yes Lab at La Fabrique de Théâtre as part of the Brussels SIGNAL festival, and was carried out with the participation of refugee-activists from several organizations.

WAAR requests that you:

• Support collectives and organizations that help the undocumented in their quest for work and legal status.
• Support airplane passengers who oppose the deportation of refugees by air, who are now being prosecuted by the Belgian justice system.
• If you are in Belgium, welcome a refugee from Maximilian Park (Brussels) into your home to allow him/her to rest, and to protect him/her from police raids.
• Visit asylum seekers in Belgian refugee centers.

Media contacts: contact@refugreenergy.org
Hélène Collin, +32 474 99 31 33
Alexandre Dewez, +32 498 33 88 62