Day 283 - 21 Oct 96 - Page 03
1 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Very well.
2
3 MR. MORRIS: I just say that the document I have handed over
4 has some of the legal submissions that we intend to make,
5 or the headings of them. We are working on researching
6 those, getting advice on those.
7
8 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Yes.
9
10 MR. MORRIS: Then it goes through the evidence on the various
11 issues in the case. That is the kind of sub-headings, if
12 you like, of each of the major issues. Obviously, they are
13 being fleshed out over the next few weeks, as we are
14 continuing our preparations, but we thought it useful to
15 give a general overview of what we are planning to do.
16 (Pause)
17
18 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Yes.
19
20 MR. MORRIS: On one side in this case we have a thirty billion
21 dollar corporation, McDonald's Hamburgers, probably the
22 world's most successful propaganda operation for the last
23 fifty years, trying to defend their right to keep making
24 profits out of the exploitation of people, animals and the
25 environment. On the other side, we have two members of the
26 public who have been denied legal aid standing up for their
27 beliefs and their very right to hold those beliefs, and the
28 public's right to hold those beliefs.
29
30 This case deals with some of the most important issues of
31 the twentieth century as far as the public in their
32 everyday lives are concerned. And McDonald's role in those
33 issues, for example a connection between multi-national
34 companies like McDonald's with cash crops and poverty in
35 the third world. The responsibilities of corporations such
36 as McDonald's for damage to the environment; their
37 packaging and also including the destruction of tropical
38 forests or, as they are known colloquially, rainforests;
39 the wasteful, harmful affects of mountains of unnecessary
40 packaging used by McDonald's and other companies;
41 McDonald's promotion and sale of food with a low fibre,
42 high saturated fat, sodium and sugar content add the links
43 between a diet of this type and the major degenerative
44 diseases in western society, including heart disease and
45 cancer; McDonald's exploitation of children by its use of
46 enticements and gimmicks to sell unhealthy products; the
47 barbaric ways that animals are reared and slaughtered to
48 supply products for McDonald's; the lousy conditions
49 workers in the catering industry are forced to work under,
50 and the low wages paid by McDonald's and McDonald's
51 hostility towards trade unions and workers' right. We
52 believe, and we will demonstrate over the coming weeks,
53 that we have proved our case on all those issues.
54
55 This case is about censorship. McDonald's spent in 1995
56 1.8 billion dollars worldwide on advertising and
57 promotions, as they were figures from their documents in
58 this case. They are quite capable, as everybody knows, of
59 putting over their point of view, their image, on any of
60 the issues relating to their business. But they have