London verdict gives McDonald's little joy

London verdict gives McDonald's little joy

A verdict was handed down on June 19 in the libel case brought by McDonald's against two supporters of London Greenpeace, Helen Steel and Dave Morris, for distributing a six-page fact sheet, "What's wrong with McDonald's?". On six claims of defamation, Justice Bell found in favour of the defendants on three, and in favour of McDonald's on three.

Steel and Morris were denied the right to a jury trial and to legal aid, but managed to battle a team of top libel lawyers for 314 days in court, making this the longest trial in English history.

Despite being ordered to pay £60,000 in damages, the two environmental campaigners are claiming a victory. Despite the $2 billion that McDonald's spends every year on its global advertising and propaganda, it has not been able to contain the PR disaster caused by the case.

Justice Bell found that there was enough evidence to substantiate claims in the fact sheet that animals suffer in order to make McDonald's food; that the company encourages unethical manipulation of children in order to boost sales; that McDonald's is based on low pay and hostility to unions.

During the course of the trial, McDonald's witnesses were forced into some embarrassing admissions on other accusations made in the fact sheet, including that McDonald's food is high in fat, sugar, animal products and salt and low in fibre, and that this sort of diet is linked to cancer; that McDonald's has been responsible for a number of food poising incidents; that beef production for McDonald's destroys rainforests; and that McDonald's packaging is dumped and not recycled, contributing to litter and land fill.

Since the writs were served on Steel and Morris, more than 2 million of the fact sheets have been handed out. After McDonald's distributed 300,000 leaflets nationwide on the eve of the trial calling its critics liars, the defendants took out a counterclaim for libel, which has been running concurrently with McDonald's libel action.

The defendants are now preparing to take the British government to the European Court of Human Rights to overturn the UK's unfair and oppressive libel laws and to continue to fight to defend the public's right to criticise multinational corporations.

On June 21, an international day of victory action was held outside McDonald's stores around the world. More than 500 of the 750 stores in Britain were leafleted. A week of action is also planned for October 11-18, coinciding with UN World Food Day on October 16.

From GLW issue 279