Statement of solidarity from McDonalds Workers Resistance sent to a public meeting dated 16 March 2002 with speaker Dave Morris from the McLibel trial.
Greetings and solidarity from Scotland. We are McDonalds Workers Resistance, Glasgow branch, who for some years now have been working to organise and encourage resistance against our employer. We have produced two copies of our workers magazine ‘McSues’ which have been distributed around the world, from Alaska USA, to Christchurch New Zealand, we have recently set up a website at www.mwr.org.uk,. produce monthly bulletins and encourage other McWorkers to establish their own resistance groups. We are delighted to hear this meeting is going ahead and send solidarity to all those opposing the fast-food industry- whatever the particular stimulus for your opposition may have been. When we first started organising we were focused exclusively on our working conditions but since then some of us have become vegans, we have all learned more about McDonalds effect on the environment and we have recognised the abhorrence of McDonalds targeting their advertising at two year olds. Further, we refuse to see our activities as isolated from these issues, we recognise our struggle as inextricably linked with that of displaced peasants and angry local communities resisting McDonalds in their neighbourhood. Workers organisation is not a single issue, but a challenge to the very foundations of the system that relentlessly pursues profit at the expense of the planet and its inhabitants. It was in this spirit that we determined to throw our efforts into the global day of action against McDonalds, on October 16th 2002, this year we hope McDonalds employees and other opponents of the company shall co-operate to take on the golden arches. Finally, it is important to recognise that opposition to fast-food culture is only meaningful if it is part of a more general critique of capitalist society. Many of our group have left the burger bar having found new jobs, new uniforms, new bosses, more exploitation and tedium. Quitting McDonalds doesn’t bring freedom, liberation begins with the destruction of the profit system and wage labour. If you want to know the difference between the work of today and the activity that represents our future, then today work for McDonalds, and tomorrow take up cooking as a hobby.
We hope everyone has a great evening and wish you all every success in your campaigns,
Love and solidarity,
Glasgow McDonalds Workers Resistance.
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