Day 001 - 28 Jun 94 - Page 17
1 First, that London Greenpeace (which, I should say, has
nothing whatsoever to do with the internationally renowned
2 environmental organisation called Greenpeace
International) was a group of like minded individuals
3 whose view of the world was, to use their own words,
"Anarchists", and whose principal objective appeared to
4 be the destruction or dismantling of organised society as
we know it and, in particular, of capitalism.
5
the investigators found that these two individuals, along
6 with others, David Morris and Helen Steel, were leading
lights in the group. The investigators found that
7 McDonald's were a principal target of the group and the
subject of a continuing and persistent campaign, not
8 apparently because of any particular acts of misconduct or
anti-social behaviour which the group thought McDonald's
9 guilty of, but simply because McDonald's were seen as a
particularly egregious example of the capitalist system.
10
My Lord, the leaflet complained of in this action with its
11 progeny (to which I shall return) was glorified amongst
the members of the group as being a particularly effective
12 weapon in the war against McDonald's.
13 Both these defendants on different occasions in early 1990
actually claimed credit for the production and
14 dissemination of the anti-McDonald's material, that is to
say, the leaflet complained of and its shorter brother
15 which was being used by the group in 1990. My Lord,
I will refer your Lordship to that shorter version in due
16 course.
17 My Lord, I would like, if I may, to interpose in this
account of the findings of the investigators this: They
18 will, of course, be giving evidence before your Lordship
in due course. I dare say their evidence may be
19 challenged, in which case your Lordship may find it
helpful to look at one document that the investigators
20 collected on their visits to these premises, not by any
subterfuge because all the material was freely available
21 to be picked up by anyone interested in looking at it in
the course of 1990.
22
My Lord, it is pink bundle 1, tab 41. The page number in
23 the bundle is 102. The pages are numbered serially
throughout the bundle. I will read the whole of this
24 document without comment except for one paragraph to which
I will come back. It appears to be a description by the
25 group itself of what it is, its aims are and so forth. It
is headed "Greenpeace (London)". There is sort of a
26 symbol at the top with a broken rifle, I think it is, in
the middle with a circle which says: Office, 5 Caledonian
27 Road, London N1, open meetings: Every Thursday, 7.30pm 6
Endsleigh St., London WC1. Background. The London
28 Greenpeace Group was founded in 1970 as an independent
group of activists by individuals from the War Resisters
29 International and Peace News. The early years were mainly
spent campaigning against nuclear bomb tests".
30
MR. JUSTICE BELL: Can you just pause a minute? It is the pink
