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
         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;
         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