Day 272 - 02 Jul 96 - Page 56
1 Q. Yes. So you were expecting the press to read the leaflet
2 and you were hoping that the public would see its contents
3 in the columns of the newspapers and on television in due
4 course, were you not?
5 A. I do not think that is really how the press works. We
6 had almost nil coverage from the press for the
7 anti-McDonald's coverage in all those years in terms of the
8 national press and media. They were not interested in it.
9
10 Q. But the point is you had sufficient copies to send out to
11 the national and no doubt local media available in August,
12 1989, did you not?
13 A. There would have been enough copies available then.
14 It does not mean that there were many. It was not a large
15 mail out. It was not like the national Day of Action mail
16 out to hundreds of groups. It would have been sent out to
17 national newspapers, radio stations, TV companies.
18
19 Q. Can you look at the next paragraph:
20
21 "On October 16th groups throughout the world will be
22 protesting outside their local branch of McDonald's. For
23 details of the campaign and how to obtain leaflets please
24 send a stamped addressed envelope to Greenpeace London, 5
25 Caledonian Road."
26
27 What leaflets were those, Mr. Gravett?
28 A. Those would have been the leaflets that we told people
29 were available from other organisations, not our own. We
30 did not encourage groups to hand out our leaflets. We
31 wanted groups to hand out their own leaflets. We wanted
32 them to be autonomous. That was part of the London
33 Greenpeace ethic.
34
35 Q. It is obviously a lot cheaper and easier for you if other
36 groups simply reprint your anti-McDonald's fact sheet and
37 put their own name on it, is it not? That is what you were
38 really hoping for, was it not, because it would save you a
39 lot of time and money?
40 A. We hoped they would make up their own leaflet with
41 their own group details on, their own information about
42 their own groups. We wanted a network of thriving local
43 groups of all types who would have an anti-McDonald's
44 campaign as one of many campaigns.
45
46 Q. The first version of the Veggies leaflets, before they were
47 spotted by McDonald's, the first version of the Veggies
48 leaflet must have been almost identical to yours, was it
49 not, before they changed the bit about the rainforest?
50 A. I imagine so, yes. I mean, it has been a long time
51 since I have seen it.
52
53 Q. I cannot show it to you because I do not have it. Do you
54 know when it first appeared? Do you remember? The Veggies
55 version?
56 A. I really do not remember. I imagine sometime in the
57 mid-1980's.
58
59 Q. Then can we, if you have still got this page open, can you
60 look at the next bit:
