Day 276 - 09 Jul 96 - Page 40
1 A. Yes.
2
3 Q. What was your conclusion when you read about the legal
4 dispute between Veggies and McDonald's; what was your
5 conclusion as regards McDonald's attitude to the Veggies
6 fact sheet?
7 A. The leaflet, sorry, the article mentioned about the ill
8 effects of McDonald's junk food and the working conditions
9 or the treatment of workers, and about the torture and
10 murder of animals. It said that McDonald's had not asked
11 for any apology over those things. So, I took it as
12 meaning, as far as McDonald's were concerned, they were all
13 completely justified criticisms.
14
15 Q. That last conclusion that you drew from that, do you
16 remember what the general feeling in London Greenpeace was
17 at the time you were involved, before October 1989? What
18 was the general feeling about the Veggies fact sheet? Was
19 it similar or different to that?
20 A. I do not think I was involved in the group at the time
21 the article got printed in Peace News. But I do remember
22 the Veggies, the Veggies correspondence being in the office
23 and people discussing it, or bringing it up from time to
24 time. And the general feeling being that effectively
25 McDonald's could not complain about or were not complaining
26 about any of the other issues in the case, so they were
27 accepting them. And that as far as everybody who cares
28 about animals is concerned, like people who were concerned
29 about those sort of things in the group, it would be
30 completely justifiable to use the words "torture" and
31 "murder". So that was completely unjustified of
32 McDonald's to demand a kind of retraction of those words.
33
34 Then also, in respect of the rainforest part, just
35 that people in the group were obviously -- in the office
36 there were copies of "Hoof Prints on the Forest", various
37 other ecological books. I think "Death of the Trees" was
38 in the office. And, obviously, in the reference file that
39 Paul had, which was kept in the office at least part of the
40 time, there were various press reports and other things
41 criticising McDonald's for their involvement in using beef
42 from exrainforest land.
43
44 And so, you know, in respect of that particular point,
45 people just felt that Veggies had been pushed into making
46 an apology because they were a limited company and they
47 could not afford to fight a libel case. So they did not
48 really have any choice other than to make the apology.
49
50 Q. What you have just described, that applies from around the
51 time you actually got started and got involved with the
52 group did it? Or are you talking about since the writs
53 were served on us, or what?
54 A. No, before the writs were served on us. I could not
55 say it was directly I got involved with the group, I just
56 remember it being brought up from time to time.
57
58 Q. So that would apply to the period before October of 1989?
59 A. Yes.
60
