McLibel : [electronic resource] burger culture on trial / John Vidal.

Includes bibliographical references (p. 344) and index.

Day 222 -- Da do ron, ron -- Street legal -- M'Lud on their boots -- Action, lights -- Diet of words --Settling in -- Harum, scarum -- Seeing, believing -- In the forest, in the dark -- Middle England -- Eee-i-eee-i-oh -- Spy vs. Spy -- Loads of old rubbish -- Heigh-ho, heigh-ho, it's off to -- But it's not just McDonald's -- And it's not just Morris and Steel -- Day 313 -- Judgement day -- Last words -- Appendices -- Diary of the trial -- Afterword from the McLibel Two -- References -- Index.

McLibel is the unlikely but true story of how a pamphlet called "What's Wrong with McDonald's?" led to the longest trial in British history. In what has become front-page news around the globe, the trial pitted the multi-billion-dollar corporation against five members of London Greenpeace accused by McDonald's of libel. Three activists capitulated and apologized; two persevered.

McLibel tells the story of the "McLibel Two" and the two-and-a-half-year trial in which the jeans-clad and impoverished defendants represented themselves against the best powdered-wig lawyers McDonald's could buy.

Does the fast-food chain exploit children? Depress wages? Level South and Central American rain forests? Subject its cattle and chicken to mass slaughters? A final chapter explores these allegations and details the $98,000 verdict against the activists Morris and Steel, which is widely viewed as a moral victory for the defendants and a public relations fiasco for McDonald's.