Another huge day of bad PR for the McDonalds corporation. Not only did we have a live cross this morning from the site to the natioanally broadcast Channel 9 Sunrise program, we were also on the SBS news, Channel 10, The Project, The Age newspaper and on various radio news bulletins during the day.
In addition Erin and Jaxon, two local campaigners delivered the 61,000 strong Change.org petition to Macca’s Head Office in Sydney which also received major media coverage including on the Today Show and the ABC nightly news amongst others.
Sunrise Cross 1
Sunrise Cross 2
Sunrise Cross 3
In 1999 I was involved in the Residents Against McDonalds who opposed the construction of a McDonalds store on the cnr of Bell and Sussex Streets Coburg. McDonalds used the same dirty tricks as you have all experienced – surveillance, private security thugs, a non-unionised demolition firm and threats of legal action against individuals. To build their store McDonalds wanted to demolish a 110 year old farmhouse one of the last of its kind in Coburg.
Our council like yours, opposed the store. Numerous VCAT hearings followed with predictable results. We gained some changes to the plans (they dropped their request for 24/7 operating hours) but the voice of the community was ignored.
We held off the demolition of the house for over 100 days. But McDonalds had powerful friends in the Kennett Government who used hundreds of Victoria Police officers to eject our ‘roof sitter’ and then form a human barrier around the site to allow the demolition of the house.
14 years later and McDonalds still won’t listen to the very community they want to inflict their store upon. Instead they bully and threaten its members to ensure they get what they want. Because McDonald’s appetite for profit is insatiable and must be fed by building more stores and selling more franchises.
I hope you win the fight and I applaud you all for running a fantastic campaign. Our most effective weapon after the strength and determination of our supporters was McDonalds fear of bad publicity. And you’re doing a great job of giving them plenty of that. (I live in London at the moment and its great to see the Guardian picking up your story.)
Keep it up! I wish you all the best of luck in your fight!