AIDS & CAPITALISM
The need for global fightback
By Preston
Wood
The AIDS epidemic reveals the inner workings of the profit
system known as capitalism.
In June 1981, a bulletin from the Centers for Disease
Control in Washington reported the mysterious deaths of five
gay men in Los Angeles from pneumocystis carinii pneumonia.
That was the first official report of the disease that would
come to be known as AIDS.
Today more than 22 million people worldwide have died from
the disease and tens of millions more are infected.
When the epidemic first burgeoned it was labeled "gay
cancer" by some and G.R.I.D--Gay-Related Immune Disease--by
others. This public health crisis earned only scorn from
then-President Ronald Reagan, who choked on even mentioning the
crisis by name for years, and wrath from his rich country club
friends around the country.
While the crisis provided the opportunity for right-wing
bigots to re-energize their campaign against gay and lesbian
rights, the virus obviously did not discriminate. Revelations
that AIDS could be spread through blood products and
heterosexual intercourse signaled the impending epidemic that
would eventually span the globe, leaving millions infected and
dying.
Seeing their community devastated by the epidemic, gay,
lesbian, bisexual and transgendered activists and their allies
in the progressive movement took to the streets by the
thousands with cries of "Act up! Fight back! Money for AIDS,
not for war!"
In the face of growing public concern and anger the
government, silent for years, was forced to begin dealing with
the crisis by allocating some funds for research and care.
'This is what democracy
looks like'
Over the years, especially the first 10 years, the AIDS
crisis exposed many things about the U.S. and its rulers:
The underlying bigotry against gay and bisexual men as well
as racism left the system paralyzed to deal with the
crisis.
The total dependence on healthcare-for-profits sent AIDS
research spiraling downward. Instead, competing pharmaceuticals
frantically searched for a vaccine or cure, hoping to strike
gold. The anarchy of producing for the market rather than to
meet human needs meant the pharmaceuticals worked in secrecy,
even attempting to sabotage the efforts of their
competitors.
And in an act of genocide, profit-hungry U.S.
pharmaceuticals turned their backs on the masses of people in
Africa and Asia, where the epidemic was spinning out of
control. Anti-viral treatments developed in the 1990s were
strictly "pay as you go." That resulted in no help for the
suffering people of Africa and the poor and oppressed here in
this country.
AIDS was first detected in the United States. Responsibility
for the ensuing global epidemic lies at the feet of U.S.
imperialism and its profit system.
Socialist Cuba, on the other hand, managed to avert disaster
by moving quickly to contain the epidemic. AIDS was not labeled
a "gay disease" in Cuba. The disease first struck a significant
number of Cubans who had been exposed to the virus while
volunteering their country's help in Africa.
All health care is provided free of cost for the entire
Cuban population. Not containing the epidemic could have
overwhelmed and seriously undermined the great successes of the
Cuban Revolution.
Since Cuba is an island it was possible to quarantine those
suffering from the virus. This quarantine was not punitive in
the way right-wing elements in this country threatened to
"round up gays." Those quarantined got the best health-care
facilities available. And it enabled the workers' state,
economically hard hit by the illegal U.S. economic blockade, to
provide humane, concentrated care for HIV-positive women and
men with AIDS. It saved the lives of countless people.
And the Cuban government initiated universal testing and a
broad education program that helped contain the epidemic.
The need for global fightback
Today the AIDS crisis is far from over. New studies suggest
a resurgence of infection among gay men in the U.S., especially
gay Black men.
CDC official Dr. Linda Valleroy notes that among Black gay
men the numbers of new exposures are especially alarming: 14.7
percent, compared to 3.5 percent among Latino gay men and 2.5
percent among white gay men.
"This is a strong and troubling indicator that the HIV
epidemic will continue to expand," Valleroy said. "These are
explosive HIV incidence rates that underscore the need to reach
each generation of at-risk gay men early."
And the AIDS crisis continues to be a disaster for all of
humanity. As long as capitalism is the predominant mode of
production in the world, any hope of a centralized plan to deal
with the crisis is elusive at best. In fact, the AIDS crisis
has contributed to throwing the U.S. profit-based healthcare
system into near collapse, draining the resources of cities all
across the country to the tune of billions of dollars.
AIDS is a globalized disease. Millions of Africans are
suffering from the epidemic.
Oppressed nations from Brazil to India--in massive debt to
the International Monetary Fund, World Bank and other
imperialist entities--are helpless to provide treatments or
care to their people.
It is very probable that today the U.S. corporate and
banking rulers would like to put the epidemic behind them. It
has cost too much and contributed too much instability to their
vast empire.
But their very system, with its inherent bigotry and thirst
for greater profits, prevents them from addressing the terrible
epidemic known as AIDS in a scientific and humane way.
Only the revival of a strong, independent and militant
movement can force them to deal effectively with the
crisis.
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
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