Day 278 - 11 Jul 96 - Page 13

     
     1        which I believe that, you know, I have read in the papers
     2        about nuclear power and things like that, I have become
     3        interested in these issues and decided to get involved in
     4        various different activities with the aim of trying to
     5        create a world based on cooperation and sharing, making
     6        sensible use of the earth's resources instead of, you know,
     7        a few multinational companies greedily taking them all to
     8        turn into their own profits and, you know, I did not pick
     9        McDonald's, McDonald's had been the subject of the
    10        fact sheet and earlier pickets before I was even involved
    11        in the group.  It was not up to me, I did not choose
    12        McDonald's.
    13
    14   Q.   You did not choose McDonald's, if I have understood the
    15        evidence you have been putting across in this court, you
    16        did not even, you weren't even much interested in
    17        McDonald's; is that right?
    18        A.  They were an interest, not a major interest, until we
    19        got the writs, when they unfortunately became a major
    20        interest.  But before that, before that they were just one
         subject on which I had participated in demonstrations,
    22        pickets.
    23
    24   Q.   And so if I put it to you that the fact sheet must have
    25        seemed to you a wonderful weapon with which to beat
    26        McDonald's, whether or not it was true, simply because you
    27        perceived that it would damage McDonald's, you will say no
    28        will you not?
    29        A.  You have got things the wrong way.  I do not want to
    30        attack McDonald's, and then I try and invent what
    31        criticisms I want to make.  I see what multinational
    32        companies are doing wrong with the world, the damage they
    33        are doing to the environment, the way that they exploit
    34        people, make them work under harsh conditions for low
    35        wages, the way that animals are imprisoned and tortured and
    36        that makes me want to do something about it.  Obviously,
    37        where a company such as McDonald's is involved in that, I
    38        will, you know, want to participate in actions against such
    39        a company.
    40
    Q.   Including dishing out material for which you are conscious
    42        there is no proper foundation?
    43        A.  No, I believe that the fact sheet was true.  And I
    44        believe that all the leaflets that have ever been written
    45        about McDonald's that I have seen produced by London
    46        Greenpeace have been true.
    47
    48   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  I must get my mind round this.  I mean, are
    49        you still saying that McDonald's -- because essentially
    50        part of your case is that the leaflet is true, so are you
    51        still saying that McDonald's is one of many US corporations
    52        using lethal poisons to destroy central American
    53        rainforest, or that they ever have used--?
    54        A.  McDonald's are one of many corporations which make use
    55        of beef from cattle reared on ex-rainforest lands, some of
    56        which have been destroyed using lethal poisons.
    57
    58   Q.   I must ask you the question again, because for better or
    59        worse I have got to?
    60        A.  I said this before, I am not an expert.