Three hundred and thirteen days of evidence and submissions. Eighteen thousand pages of court transcripts. Forty thousand pages of documents and witness statements. Twenty-eight pre-trial hearings. England's longest ever court case. One hundred and eighty witnesses. Appeals to Europe and the highest courts in Britain. One of the world's largest corporations. Two of the world's most determined and tenacious people. Some of the most contentious issues of the times. Humbug. Reputation. Tears. Tedium. Drama. Ideals. Six weeks to grasp it all and put this book together.

So begins McLibel's preface. As many of you know, McDonald's Corporation sued two unemployed British activists, Helen Steel and Dave Morris, in 1990 concerning a leaflet entitled "What's wrong with McDonald's?" (available on the web at www.McSpotlight.org and reprinted in the last issue of the Grapevine). The leaflet accuses McDonald's of serving unhealthy food, promoting unsound environmental policies, and of exploiting animals and people in the blind pursuit of profit.

The resulting "McLibel" trial lasted 335 days, making it the longest legal action of any kind in British history. Britain's libel laws place a great burden of proof on libel defendants, requiring those who cannot afford a lawyer to conduct their own defense, which is what Helen and Dave did. Against all odds, when the verdict was read in June 1997, they won a partial victory with the judge finding that McDonald's exploits children in its advertising, is "culpably responsible" for cruelty to animals, and makes false claims about the nutritional value of their food, though the judge found in favor of McDonald's overall.

The trial generated tremendous publicity in England, with regular newspaper and magazine updates, television news reports, an excellent documentary video (McLibel: Two Worlds Collide that we showed multiple times in late 1997), and even a three-hour television mini-series dramatizing the trial. John Vidal, environmental reporter for the London Guardian, was charged with writing a balanced book about the mammoth trial. Though McDonald's was asked "on very many occasions before and after the case was closed", they chose not to participate via interview, review of the book draft, or contribution of their own material.

McLibel is one of the most interesting and exciting books that I have read in years. It covers the background and trial in detail, in a manner that is balanced and never dull. The author's background as a journalist is clear in the lucid and very readable writing style. In spite of not hearing from McDonald's, Vidal tries very hard to see the issues from all perspectives.

The story of the trial is compelling, but the book goes further. One chapter, "But it's not just McDonald's", left me incredulous in the scope of social problems related to multinational companies. Their prime motive is usually to enrich their stockholders, and some become so successful that they wield tremendous power. Some of these companies use their power without being socially responsible or accountable like the local governments need to be. The sheer size and concentration of resource is amazing: "fewer than ten transnational corporations control virtually every aspect of the worldwide food chain" [p.242]; "of the world's largest hundred economies, fifty are now corporations" [p.243]; "Shell [Oil Corporation] ... owns or leases some 400 million acres of land, ... [making] it larger than 146 countries" [p.243].

The story is told of Ken Saro-Wiva and the Ogoni region of Nigeria. Royal Dutch Shell, the world's second largest corporation, had been lucratively extracting oil for decades, but Saro-Wiva argued that they had not shared any benefits with the half million Ogoni people, most of whom have no electricity, health care (one doctor for every 65,000 people and one hospital total), or reasonable schooling. Oil spills and other environmental impacts were harming native economies and destroying the land. During the McLibel trial period, trumped up charges were brought against Saro-Wiva and he was executed.

With the gap between poor and rich growing globally, and international business law sometimes superceding national law, Vidal argues for other approaches. He discusses and gives good references for ideas such as Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) being checks and balances to corporations and governments; Local Exchange Trading Schemes (LETS) hilighting the true meaning of commerce, that of commodities and not money; direct farmer-to-customer schemes like Community Supported Agriculture to keep us in touch with how food is grown; and micro-enterprises and micro-credit that keep diverse, indigeneous peoples thriving without having to be assimilated into a global corporate homogeneity.

McLibel is an important book. It is very well written and not only very readably portrays the complexities of a fascinating, landmark court battle, but sets it in a much larger context that people need to be aware of.