July 18, 2000
		40,000 Protesters Converge on Millau, France to Support McDonald's Saboteur In one of the the largest anti-corporatization protests to date, 40,000 people gathered in the sleepy town of Millau in rural southern France on July 2. They came to express their support for farmer-turned-revolutionary Jose Bove, who is on trial for destroying a half-built McDonald's restaurant. Bove has become the de faco leader of the anti-biotech and anti-corporatization movement in France, and has made a name for himself throughout Europe and much of the rest of the world for his militant positions against the World Trade Organization (WTO) and other global political bodies which he sees as threats to agriculture, health, and the economy in France and elsewhere. Bove made the most of the spectacle by arriving to the couthouse in a horse-drawn cart while the throngs chanted agaigainst "McDomination". The trial itself was broadcast on huge screens outside the courtroom, while others in the crowd busied themselves with street theater, workshops, debates, and concerts. Jose Bove Bove considers McDonald's to be the perfect symbol of the threat of globalization. McDonald's requires gargantuan scale factory farming practices, and is in a march toward a type of cultural genocide as its products replace the usually healthier and more eco-friendly local food choices around the world. Bove's group, the agricultural trade union Confederation Paysanne has been working full time to get their message out. Their mission is to convince politicians to rethink their positions on globalization, which Bove feels is threatening human rights, diversity, and the overall quality of people's lives. Bove has also set up a group of experts in the fields of law, finance, and economics to closely monitor the WTO headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland like a "giant microscope."