Burger off!

The Sydney Morning Herald -

The residents of one Victorian town aren’t just saying no to McDonald’s – they’ve launched an international fight.

When McDonald’s decided to build an outlet in the Victorian township of  Tecoma, it must have seemed an obvious thing to do. The township is a gateway to  the Dandenong Ranges, one of Melbourne’s favourite playgrounds, a place of fern  glades and forest villages and the lovely old Puffing Billy steam train that has  delighted generations of children. For McDonald’s, the only question must have  been: why wouldn’t you?

But two years on, the hills are alive with dissent. More than 90,000 people  have signed a petition calling on the burger giant to back off; celebrity chef  Jamie Oliver has tweeted support for Tecoma to his 3.4 million followers;  high-powered lawyers have volunteered their services to defend protestors  charged with offences related to the disruption of the development; while  McDonald’s has been portrayed as a corporate bully.

McDonald’s won’t go broke, it’s the poor guy who is investing in that  franchise who is going to go broke.

In Tecoma, members of the No McDonald’s protest group and security guards,  who are washboards for their anger, keep uneasy company. Protest slogans are  scrawled on the fences of the intended construction site: “This is our home”,  “Not in our community”, “We will never give up”, “Leave our hills alone”, “Not  welcome”, “Child predators.” Writs are also pasted to the fences naming eight  people who are being sued by McDonald’s for damages caused by disruption to the  development, including loss of profits. In Tecoma, they are referred to, in the  language of martyrs, as the Tecoma Eight.

Read more: smh.com.au