Executive summary
The McLibel Trial is the infamous British court case between McDonald's and a former postman & a gardener from London (Helen Steel and Dave Morris). It ran for two and a half years and became the longest ever English trial. The defendants were denied legal aid and their right to a jury, so the whole trial was heard by a single Judge, Mr. Justice Bell. He delivered his verdict in June 1997.

The verdict was devastating for McDonald's. The judge ruled that they 'exploit children' with their advertising, produce 'misleading' advertising, are 'culpably responsible' for cruelty to animals, are 'antipathetic' to unionization and pay their workers low wages. But Helen and Dave failed to prove all the points and so the Judge ruled that they HAD libelled McDonald's and should pay 60,000 pounds damages. They refused and McDonald's knew better than to pursue it. In March 1999 the Court of Appeal made further rulings that it was fair comment to say that McDonald's employees worldwide "do badly in terms of pay and conditions", and true that "if one eats enough McDonald's food, one's diet may well become high in fat etc., with the very real risk of heart disease."
As a result of the court case, the Anti-McDonald's campaign mushroomed, the press coverage increased exponentially, this website was born and a feature length documentary was broadcast round the world.
The legal controversy continued. The McLibel 2 took the British Government to the European Court of Human Rights to defend the public's right to criticize multinationals, claiming UK libel laws are oppressive and unfair that they were denied a fair trial. The court ruled in favor of Helen and Dave: the case had breached their their rights to freedom of expression and a fair trial.
Who said ordinary people can't change the world?

McLIBEL STORY
Handing out leaflets on the streets was one of the main activities of the small activist group London Greenpeace, who'd been campaigning on a variety of environmental and social justice issues since the early 1970's. (The group predates the more well known Greenpeace International and the two organisations are unconnected).
In 1978 local postman Dave Morris worked alongside London Greenpeace activists in protests against nuclear power. By 1982 he had started attending the group's meetings.
London Greenpeace campaigned on a wide range of issues from nuclear power and Third World Debt to anti-traffic actions and the Miners Strike. In the mid 1980's the group began a campaign focusing on McDonald's as a high profile organisation symbolising everything they considered wrong with the prevailing corporate mentality. In 1985 they launched the International Day of Action Against McDonald's, which has been held on October 16th ever since. In 1986 they produced a 6-sided factsheet called 'What's Wrong With McDonald's? - Everything they don't want you to know'. The leaflet attacked almost all aspects of the corporation's business, accusing them of exploiting children with advertising, promoting an unhealthy diet, exploiting their staff and being responsible for environmental damage and ill treatment of animals.
But the group also continued with other campaigns, and in 1987, 21-year old gardener Helen Steel went along to meetings to get involved with protests in support of Aboriginal land rights at the time of the re-enactment of the First Fleet sailing to Australia.
Meanwhile, McDonald's were busily suing (or threatening to sue) almost everyone who criticised them - from the BBC and The Guardian to student unions and green groups. They appeared to ignore the London Greenpeace campaign, and instead threatened a food cooperative called 'Veggies' in Nottingham, who were distributing the same leaflet. McDonald's then made an