Komputer for Alle 1998 #6/1998 CD 6 (Gul).iso/web/ffa/wwwenv~1.org/arrs/digest/news3~10.htm/text0023.txt

Internet Message Format | 1998-04-03 | 5.2 KB

Date: May 1, 1997
>From: MSC, London

Macmillan - Press Release
UK
April 1997

McLIBEL: BURGER CULTURE ON TRIAL
by John Vidal
TO BE PUBLISHED ON 18 APRIL - PRICE 15.99 POUNDS

The McLibel Trial, the longest case in English legal history, is an unlikely
morality tale of our times.  In 1990, McDonald's slapped writs on five
London activists for allegedly libelling them in a leaflet entitled "What's
Wrong With McDonald's?".  They successfully silenced three.  But the
international giant had not banked on the dogged determination of Helen
Steel and Dave Morris, who refused to apologise.

Denied a jury trial and ineligible for legal aid, they were forced to defend
themselves.  Pitted against some of the top libel lawyers in the country,
this unlikely duo became the symbol of a burgeoning protest movement against
the globalisation represented by corporations such as McDonald's.  For two
years, the trial ground through issues from employment, advertising,
recycling and litter, to nutrition, animal rights and deforestation, pitting
opposing philosophies against each other.  The McLibel Support Campaign grew
around them - lawyers, nutritionists, ex-McDonald's workers, mothers,
teenagers - all weighed-in with financial or other aid.  A site was created
on the Internet - McSPOTLIGHT - publicising the trial and giving millions
access to what McDonald's had tried to suppress.  A very different side of
McDonald's to that portrayed in their $2 billion annual advertising budget
has been exposed.  A company this size has never before been so carefully or
publicly examined.  The tables turned and the corporation found itself on
trial.

The conclusion of the trial offers the first opportunity to measure the
lasting impact - and the very real political and legal significance - of the
case.  McLIBEL, the book, tells the gripping inside story of this epic clash
of cultures and allows the public, denied the chance to be the jury, to
judge for themselves.

John Vidal has been Environment Editor of the Guardian for 6 years.  Helen
Steel and Dave Morris, the McLibel Defendants, live near each other in North
London.  Helen is a bar worker and former gardener.  Dave is a single parent
and ex-postman.  Both have for years been actively involved in a wide range
of grassroots movements concerning the environment, workers' rights, food
issues, anti-fascism, housing and animal rights.


***  Note from McLibel Support Campaign:  ***
The book is now available in bookshops in the UK.  It will be on sale in
some other countries soon.  It can also be ordered by anyone having problems
obtaining a copy, from Veggies by mail order for cover price 15.99 pounds
(including postage within the UK).  Overseas readers should contact Veggies
to check overseas postage costs.
Veggies, 180 Mansfield Rd, Nottingham NG1 3HW, UK, Tel [phone],
email <[e-mail]>.

- ENDS -

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
U.S. McLibel Support Campaign               Email [e-mail]
PO Box 62                                        Phone/Fax [phone]
Craftsbury VT 05826-0062                    http://www.mcspotlight.org/
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