McLibel

What a funny and inspiring documentary! The McLibel case took place in the UK around 1990. The documentary reviews the events surrounding the case, as well as the latest salvo, involving an appeal filed with the European Court of Human Rights. The film ends when the result of this appeal was released in early 2005.

In the late 80's, London Greenpeace initiated a leaflet campaign against McDonalds, alleging that McDonalds business practices led to the destruction of rain forests, their food was unhealthy, and that the working conditions were unjust. Nowadays, this type of leaflet is what one would expect from an anti-globalization, anti-corporate group. I'm not sure of how it was back then, but McDonalds, being a wealthy corporation, overreached: taking advantage of British libel laws, they sued 5 members of the group for libel. Three of the members decided that the odds were stacked against them and apologized. Two members of the group refused to apologize: for years this pair, have defended themselves against a team of expert lawyers and witnesses.

Eric Schlosser, author of Fast Food Nation, points out that this case, in some ways, marked the first-time ordinary citizens used the legal system, to highlight the worst practices of a large corporation. Effectively starting the anti-corporate movement.

Rent it from your locally-owned video store, buy it, or Netflix it.