|
| ||
|
Socialist Worker. July 1998
BRITAIN'S TV chiefs Won't allow you to see a devastating proramme which exposes the real face of one of the world's biggest multinational corporations. Both the BBC and Channel 4 had been planning to show the programme but dropped it after lawyers warned of legal action by the giant McDonald's burger company. This comes just as the government is boasting of giving McDonald's a say in the running of North Somerset schools. The 50 minute programme tells the story of the "McLibel" legal case, when the burger multinational sued two campaigners over a leaflet they had issued. The case bcame the longest ever court case in Britain, beginning in 1994 and running for over two years. The two campaigners, part-time bar worker Helen Steel and single father and gormer postal worker Dave Morris, were members of the London Greenpeace campaign group. They had issued a leaflet "What's Wrong With MCDonald's" comntaining a series of allegations against the burger company. The TV programme McLibel: Two Worlds Collide tells the tale of the court battle. Director Franny Armstrong followed the case. filming Helen and Dave as they stood up to the multinational company. Left wing film director Ken Loach helped complete the film by working on reconstructions of crucial court scenes. The result is a marvellous programme that should be broadcast on prime time TV to every home in Britain. It not only tells the story of the case, but does so in a way that gives real insight into both the world of multinational corporations and the legal system. '~We had a firm commitment from the BBC." says Franny Armstrong. '~We even had a slot in the schedules. But then they pulled it on the advice of their lawyers." ~Channel 4 was also very impressed with the film and wanted to buy it. Nobody is arguing against the film on quality grounds. They're just too scared to show it.~ The programme exposes just how ruthless big business can be when it feels its profits are threatened. McDonald~s resorted to the most obscene methods in its desire to crush the two campaigners. It consulted with the British Special Branch and hired private detectives to infiltrate the London Greenpeace group. In the programme we hear Jan, one of the seven spies hired by McDonald's, describe how she had been paid to infiltrate the campaign group. We also hear of how McDonald's managed to successfully argue that the case was 'too complex" to be heard by a jury. It succeeded in getting the case heard by a super-rich Oxford educated judge. Midway through the trial it paid £500 to "sponsor' a summer fun day at the playgroup Dave Morris's young son attended. In the programme we see MeDona1d's executives and their 'Ronald McDonald" clown take over the kids day out, with Dave sitting there powerless against the company which was trying to crush him.
Helen and Dave managed to convince the judge, despite the odds, that McDonaId's WAS guilty of the most serious of the charges levelled at it. Yet the judge in the end found the two campaigners guilty of libel because on some issues he agreed with the company. It is very hard to see how any normal person could have reached the same conclusion.
|