23 May - 29 May 1996
Each week McSpotlight will be updated on how the world's press has covered McLibel, McDonald's and multinationals in general.
There's another big McDonald's court case going on in the States - the infamous McDonald's scalding coffee case. There have been more than 700 claims by people burned by McDonald's coffee between 1982 and 1992. It's dangerous stuff, find out if it's worth it at http://www.seamless.com/consumer/mcdonald.html. You can also find out how to "Screw over your local McDonald's" (an excerpt from Phrack magazine) at http://www.garlic.com/~ribarbe/.
The McInformation Network is another source of veggie background info, a reply to the alleged $1.4 billion a year that McDonald's spend worldwide on promoting themselves. The McInformation homepage, less than keen on eating cows that have to eat themselves is at http://www.mcspotlight.org/home.html.
McDonald's has a newsgroup devoted to it, alt.mcdonald's, that discusses McMuffins, McPizzas and all those other lil guys. Get the wonderfully trivial FAQ for the newsgroup on http://www.seas.gwu.edu/student/kmhebert/alt.mcdonalds.html. McDonald's of Austria lead the way in the few McDonald's corporate homepages outside the US, followed by McDonald's of Sweden and of Finland (none of these are in English). Ronald McDonald, of course, is all heart - if you want to donate some money to sick children, you can do it at the Ronald McDonald House Walk of Love (yes, that's what it's called) at http://www.fala.com/ronald.html.
For evidence on what burgers do to your brain, check out the home page of the McDonald Family of New Mexico, meet daughter Libby and learn about the First Unitarian Church of Albuquerque. Or try the McDonald Family of South Africa (http://www.nis.za/homepgs/sallie3.htm) who also have adorable children and lots of useful links on poultry farming.
Mr Morris says "The people from Veggies in Nottingham are fantastic. A lot of their help is moral support, and things like photocopying or looking after my son."
One helper, Justin, hitch-hiked to London to help out. He said: "I went down for just over a week. When I got there I was helping take Dave's son Charlie to school, making food, helping carry things to court, doing research, lots of photocopying, taking phone messages and sending e-mails."
The London-based McLibel Support Campaign is run by Notts lawyer Dan Mills from a London flat. Mr Mills, 27, manages the centre, liasing with the international press, arranging interviews and co-ordinating campaigns.
There are around 15 active supporters in the Nottingham McLibel Support Campaign which is co-ordinated through the Rainbow Centre on Mansfield Road.
This is a celebration of DIY culture that marks new interest in an ideology most had written off as dead or - in the year the Sex Pistols re-formed - sold out. Not true, say the 'organisers' of Britain's biggest anarchist bash, who promise activities as diverse as a punk picnic, an anti-fascist football-match (no right-wingers) and a workshop on the Unabomber manifesto.
The McLibel Trial will be discussed, along with sexual freedom and the Operation Spanner case.
Anarchy - they insist - is alive and well and living in the UK. from the Twyford Down, Newbury and M11 protests to the anti-veal campaign, to the new frontiers of cyberspace, a new kind of anarchy is abroad - one that would have Tolstoy, Emma Goldman, Bukanin or the Barcelona syndicalists spinning in their graves.
This statement, read out in the High court, would have been considered overtly racist had it not come from a Japanese native. However, Den Fujita works for a multinational corporation and, as president of McDonald's Japan, is making it clear that national identity runs a subordinate second to corporate loyalty.
The political significance of his statement is that Fujita's condition is fast becoming a worldwide phenomenon as multinationals manoeuvre ever-larger proportions of the global economy. An understanding of the techniques used to dominate the global market should therefore be of acute political interest to those with an eye on future superpowers. And nowhere can this interest be more readily awarded than with a review of the longest and most extensive corporate grilling ever, the McLibel trial.
With driven global ambitions and a responsibility for nothing but its own economic success, a future manipulated by multinationals is a frightening prospect. For this reason the two McLibel defendants, with no legal aid, have devoted the last five years to providing a rare opportunity to scrutinise a multinational corporation. There are few other forums for corporate accountability in which money will not buy allegiance.
If Steel and Morris lose, their court costs could be millions of pounds. "We could get money taken out of wages or income support," says Steel. "And if McDonald's get their injunction to prevent further distribution of the leaflet and we still distribute it, we could be jailed for contempt of court."
"This is about creating a totally different kind of society, without exploitation, and the meat industry is one part of that," says Steel. We want people to have control of their own lives rather than having them dictated by the Government or big business. If people have alternative information about a company, they can make their own decisions."
