The McLibel Trial and McDonald’s – 25 years on

Posted: December 30, 2022

Still controversial and inspiring after all these years!

By Dave Morris, one of the McLibel 2

The McLibel case, brought by the McDonald’s Corporation against London Greenpeace activists Helen Steel and Dave Morris (the ‘McLibel 2′), was the longest and one of the most controversial trials in English history. London Greenpeace had been criticising McDonald’s as an example of transnational corporations’ global exploitation of workers, customers, children, animals and the environment. Protestors launched a successful global defiance campaign in response to the junk food giant’s attempts to silence their critics. 25 years on from the trial verdict the McLibel campaign from that era continues to inspire, and McDonald’s continues to be a focus of campaigns over low pay, junk food and its effect on the environment. As the anniversary year draws to a close here’s some updates and reflections…

McLibel case alive and echoing across the years

In April, the BBC commemorated the anniversary of the McLibel trial in a special 40min ‘Re-union’ Radio 4 programme – https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m00168fp Helen and Dave had the pleasure of looking back at the case with one of McDonald’s barristers, and also the director of the McLibel documentary. Plus interviews with Keir Starmer from the time he was helping the ‘McLibel 2’ with legal advice. Definitely worth checking out.

At the Re-union, for the BBC in 2022

Spannerfilms tried to get the BBC to show the full McLibel documentary on TV again, or at least make it available on iPlayer – but they wouldn’t, so its back on youtube as ever. Meanwhile Helen and Dave attended a special 25th anniversary public showing and discussion of the film in Tottenham, North London, where they have both lived for the last 40 years (until Helen recently moved away).

The superb spannerfilms double-disc McLibel DVD is still available, with loads of amazing extra features (involving interviews with a corporate McSpy, a cattle rancher, a would-be future Prime Minister, Ronald McDonald, Keir Starmer, and a secret recording with US McBoard executives meeting up with Helen and Dave to try to halt the disastrous trial) – purchase from https://spannerfilms.net/films/mclibel An independent and comprehensive review of the DVD can be read here: http://www.cineoutsider.com/reviews/dvd/m/mclibel.html

The campaign and trial still hold a fascination for schoolkids and students, whether studying law, business or history. Pema and Emily, school students from Boulder, Colorado in the USA created a sensational award winning McLibel exhibition in 2021 – https://drive.google.com/file/d/1a_If3tTHka4o1swn2ORchxqTYJmPWDmj/view They wrote to Helen and Dave afterwards: “With your help, we were able to create this successful exhibit that not only won second place [in the US National History Day inter-schools contest], but it was also showcased for the Smithsonian National Museum of American History. Our school also wrote a paper in our school magazine about the project and our process. We also received letters from John Hickenlooper, Senator of Colorado, and Joe Neguse, United States Representative, due to the achievements seen in this project.”

And talking of exhibitions, the famous ‘What’s Wrong With McDonald’s?’ 6-page factsheet was featured in the ‘Disobedient Objects’ display in 2014 at the V&A Museum in London, and more recently in a special online oral / pictorial history by young people of the Housmans radical social centre and bookshop at 5 Caledonian Road, London, where London Greenpeace and the McLibel Campaign were based. Why not have a browse here: https://5callyroad.org/home/

By the way, its worth noting that the wikipedia entry for McLibel – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McLibel_case – has a number of errors and omissions. Most bizarrely it displays the wrong leaflet as the subject of the libel action!

Finally, the legendary McSpotlight website has amazingly survived over 25 years, despite a few broken links. Its summary of the case is still the most accurate, comprehensive and entertaining – https://www.mcspotlight.org/case/

A McConfession and some plaudits

Don’t just take our word (and that of the entire world’s media) for it being a ‘disastrous trial’ – here’s a confession by one of McDonald’s key trial witnesses, Bob Langert (their international Director of Environmental Affairs). In his 2019 book ‘The Battle to do Good: Inside McDonald’s Sustainability Journey’ he admits: “The McLibel trial in England started in 1995. It was like the very worst of today’s reality shows. McLibel exposed every wart of McDonald’s, including many animal welfare issues with suppliers, such as hens and hogs crammed into sterile, steel cages…. the power of the emerging digital age created the first international internet-based public campaign. The two individuals who created the millions of leaflets distributed throughout the United Kingdom, Helen Steel and Dave Morris, were savvy in leveraging the Internet and created a website called McSpotlight to spread the word far and wide about their thoughts regarding “What’s Wrong with McDonald’s.” … McSpotlight was among the very first transparency efforts that traveled the globe through the new channels of the burgeoning internet. … Looking back.. I don’t know how McDonald’s could have communicated its way out of what became a monumental PR disaster. .. In one particularly telling incident, McDonald’s executives were challenged on the company’s claim that it serves “nutritious food”: David Green, senior vice president of marketing, expressed his opinion that Coca-Cola is nutritious because it is “providing water, and I think that is part of a balanced diet.” In another embarrassing exchange, McDonald’s executive Ed Oakley explained to Steel that the McDonald’s garbage stuffed into landfills is “a benefit, otherwise you will end up with lots of vast empty gravel pits all over the country.” … Many labeled the McDonald’s decision to sue the two unknown, ragtag London Greenpeace leaflet campaigners as the “world’s biggest corporate PR disaster.” Indeed, the trial was an embarrassment for us at McDonald’s.”

In 2002, the McLibel campaign was voted by UK advertising experts as one of the top 10 consumer PR campaigns of all time – https://www.prweek.com/article/141028/top-consumer-pr-campaigns-time-consumer-classics—eight-panelists-tough-task-deciding-top-20-consumer-pr-campaigns-mark-johnson-reports And that’s despite having to rely on donations from the public up against unlimited corporate propaganda resources. Well done to all those who had helped with campaigning and publicity, including the thousands of activists who had helped distribute millions of flyers outside McDonald’s stores around the world.

Protests against the junk food multinational continue.

During the sweltering heatwave in July the Green Lanes McStore in Tottenham, North London, outraged everyone by cutting down 11 mature trees on the edge of their property by the public pavement, replacing them with.. plastic grass! Cue a call to action by ‘Countryfile’ presenter Chris Packham, national media coverage, and a rousing local protest. Protestors demanded replacement trees be planted, and that the company outlaw any other similar destructive action elsewhere. The store manager tried to justify the act of vandalism, claiming “drainage issues and a degree of subsidence in the area where the trees were located” led to his decision that “it was in the best interests of the trees to remove them” – a comment worthy of a McDonald’s director in the witness box in the McLibel trial! The protest:

And the whole issue of deforestation of the amazon has risen again, this time with a focus on soya plantations on ex-rainforest land in Brazil being created for export of feed for chickens used for McNuggets abroad. See https://www.theguardian.com/guardianweekly/story/0,,1752430,00.html And despite all their claims over the last 25 years, McDonald’s was caught red-handed in 2019 using beef from deforested amazonian land: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/sep/17/leading-burger-supplier-sourced-from-amazon-farmer-guilty-of-deforestation

In another echo of the McLibel campaigning era, the last few years have seen an upsurge in efforts by low paid workers, especially in the USA, to organise, unionise and take action to increase the minimum wage for those at McDonald’s, Starbucks etc. For example on April 14th 2016 there were 300 such protests in 40 countries. https://fightfor15.org/video-massive-global-protests-on-414-because-mcjobs-cost-us-all/

Workers mobilising against low pay

McDonald’s also continues to be widely criticised for its relentless promotion of unhealthy junk food, including its inappropriate and controversial marketing deals with major sporting events. For example why not have a look at what the Academy of Royal Medical Colleges had to say about McDonald’s involvement in the 2012 London Olympic Games: https://www.csmonitor.com/World/Latest-News-Wires/2012/0502/World-s-largest-McDonald-s-A-big-ad-for-obesity-say-British-doctors And despite ever-increasing obesity levels in the UK and around the world, the corporation’s propaganda machine was still at it at the 2022 World Cup earlier this month.

Oppressive UK libel laws still under fire

The use of libel as censorship by the rich and powerful against their critics is still topical and controversial – https://www.theguardian.com/law/2022/mar/17/libel-lawfare-english-courts-slapps And this is despite some useful reforms already made in 2013 by the Government after the humiliating McLibel victory against them at the European Court of Human Rights. A detailed legal review in 2020 of the new 2013 laws explained that: “The Defamation Act had sought to modify some of the common law rules which were seen unduly to favour the protection of reputation at the expense of freedom of expression. More specifically, the Act strengthened the defences of justification (now ‘truth’), journalistic qualified privilege (now ‘publication on a matter of public interest’) and fair comment (now ‘honest opinion’). The Act introduced a ‘serious harm’ threshold for bringing a defamation claim, and a single publication rule (potentially of great significance to online publication). The article noted that in recent times: “…corporate defamation claims have been few and far between. Large companies seldom brought libel claims before the Act (see the unfavourable publicity attracted by McDonald’s in the infamous ‘McLibel case’ for why) and this remains the case.” https://www.brettwilson.co.uk/blog/defamation-act-2013-a-summary-and-overview-six-years-on/

Public scandal of 50 years of secret undercover police operations against 1,000 campaign groups, including London Greenpeace

Spies outed and condemned: The McLibel trial revealed that McDonald’s controversially hired at least 6 corporate spies to infiltrate London Greenpeace at the end of the 1980s. Following the revelations during the trial, in 1999 Helen and Dave successfully sued the Metropolitan Police for passing on personal information to these McSpies. The police were forced to apologise, but shockingly failed to reveal the reality, which was MUCH worse. Years later, campaigners were able to expose a secret police unit, the Special Demonstration Squad (SDS), who had placed at least 3 undercover police spies in London Greenpeace and the McLibel Campaign from 1983 – 1995. One of these Metropolitan Police agents, Bob Lambert, was publicly outed in 2013 by Helen and Dave: See this video of him being challenged in the street –

(The confrontation is at 1.50 seconds into the video). He had had fake and therefore abusive relationships with activists, had even fathered a child with one – and had helped write the ‘What’s Wrong With McDonald’s?’ factsheet, the subject of the libel action. After such ‘great’ work the Met Police promoted him to be the head of the secret squad. He was replaced in London Greenpeace by another police infiltrator, John Dines. Under his fake persona Dines then developed a long term ‘relationship’ with Helen Steel, in which they lived together for 2 years, before he too ‘disappeared’ causing huge mental stress to Helen for many years. She finally worked out the truth and in 2016 confronted Dines at Sydney airport in Australia: https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/video/2016/mar/09/woman-confronts-former-police-spy-who-tricked-her-into-a-relationship-video Helen’s shocking story can be read here: https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/may/11/it-was-as-if-he-set-out-to-destroy-my-sanity-how-the-spy-cops-lied-their-way-into-womens-hearts-and-beds There were many women similarly targetted by the Squad – this year some of them, including Helen, published a book about it all: ‘Deep Deception’. It is highly recommended reading – https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-d&q=Deep+Deception+buy The SDS disgraceful abuse of women over decades is yet another example of the Met Police’s institutional sexism.

Campaigners efforts and growing public outrage eventually forced the Government to institute an Undercover Policing Public Inquiry in 2015. Despite police delaying tactics a wealth of documentation and evidence is finally beginning to emerge about the unacceptable and unlawful activities of the SDS, sanctioned at the highest level of Government. There is also a great spirit of solidarity and determination among the targeted groups, many now working together to publicise the Inquiry and celebrate 50 years of inspirational campaigns and movements for change. Helen and Dave are both heavily involved in the Inquiry, although its only investigated the years 1968-1982 so far. You can read Dave’s statements to the Inquiry – https://www.ucpi.org.uk/individuals_name/dave-morris/ This is probably the best overview: https://www.ucpi.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/20201108-AMENDED_Opening_Statement-Dave_Morris.pdf

Celebrating movements for change, in defiance of repressive policing

What are the McLibel 2 up to now?

As you can gather from the information above Helen has had to focus a great deal on campaigning around the undercover policing scandal. She remains active on a range of other issues.

Both of us were involved in the regeneration of our local park, Lordship Rec in Tottenham. Helen worked there as a Council gardener for many years (including being a Trade Union rep), and Dave has been chair of the Friends of Lordship Rec for the last 20 years. The Friends now help co-manage the park with Haringey Council’s parks service – you can watch a 2018 BBC Countryfile piece about the park, with an interview with Dave:

Because of this work Dave has now become the chair of the National Federation of Parks and Green Spaces, the umbrella organisation for the movement of over 7,000 local Friends of Parks groups. The NFPGS, despite being unfunded and run entirely by volunteers, plays a crucial role in promoting, improving and protecting the UK’s public greenspace. See www.natfedparks.org.uk

London Greenpeace is still in existence, although almost exclusively focused on the Undercover Policing Inquiry.

Dave Morris, McLibel ex-Defendant

– London, 30th December 2022

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