'Honor the dead, fight for the living'
Calls for massive AIDS protests gain impetus
By Leslie
Feinberg
As the world AIDS pandemic enters its third decade, and more
than 22 million lives have been lost, plans for two major
marches are underway--one in Washington, D.C., the other in New
York City.
Since the Centers for Disease Control pub lished the first
reported case of AIDS in June 1981, more than 50 million people
around the world have been infected. Trans mission continues to
travel at lightning speed in the most impoverished
countries.
Recent UN studies confirm that over 25 million Africans are
currently battling AIDS. Seventeen million Africans have
already died as a result of AIDS or AIDS-related
infections.
And 20 years later here in the U.S., where the rich live
higher on the hog than anywhere else, a recent study by the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Baltimore,
Dallas, Los Angeles, Miami, New York and Seattle found an
estimated 30 percent of young, gay Black men infected with
HIV.
Millions more will become infected unless the epidemic is
brought under control through a comprehensive global
effort.
That is why both these planned protests are immeasurably
strengthened by their international approach and especially by
their solidarity with oppressed peoples both within the United
States and around the world. They direct their demands against
the U.S. and other wealthy imperialist powers.
It is this wealthy elite class worldwide that must fork over
the money and resources needed by the peoples and countries
most impoverished after centuries of colonialist and
imperialist bloodsucking.
WASHINGTON, D.C.:
'Remember the
dead,
renew the
struggle'
Hundreds of organizations and thousands of individuals are
reportedly planning to take part in a massive march on
Washington June 3 to demand swift, compassionate and
comprehensive action against AIDS worldwide.
The logo for the protest urges, "Remember the dead, renew
the struggle."
In a statement calling for the demonstration, the June 3rd
Action Committee presses the pharmaceutical industry to "make
further concessions on the pricing of HIV treatments." And it
calls on the pharmaceutical giants to halt their attempts to
stymie the distribution of generic HIV treatments by
governments in countries like Brazil and South Africa.
In addition, "the United States and other wealthy nations
must match the pharmaceutical industry's concessions with
sufficient contributions to finance infrastructure development
and women's economic empowerment programs, fund preventive
education campaigns, provide treatment, care for orphans and
relieve the national debts of the poorest nations."
The mission statement adds that life-prolonging treatment
available to many people in the U.S. must be accessible to all
around the world. However, "we further believe that the current
treatments are inadequate and that research must be better
funded and better directed in the search for more effective,
less toxic and less expensive treatments."
Further, the statement stresses, "We believe that the United
States must do more to assist other nations and that there is
also much work to be done at home. We call on the President and
Congress to recognize and respond to the need for increased
research as well as prevention education, care and treatment,
particularly within the African American, Latino, Asian/Pacific
Islander and Native American communities. We are also deeply
concerned by the increased infection rates among women and
youth of all races."
The statement concludes, "We believe in, and will continue
to fight for, a cure and a vaccine."
The June 3rd Action Committee notes that worldwide 4.3
million children under the age of 15 have lost their lives as a
result of AIDS. More than 13 million children have been
orphaned by the epidemic.
"We urge all organizations serving youth and children to
assist us in encouraging their participation," the mission
statement emphasizes.
Sponsoring organizations come from cities and towns across
the United States--from New Orleans to Detroit, Pasadena to
Boston. Women's and youth groups, lesbian, gay, bisexual and
trans organizations, health clinics and street outreach
organizations swell the sponsors' list.
And sponsors include people of color organizations like
Africa Action, African AIDS Project of the Boston Global Action
Network, Asian and Pacific Islander Wellness Center, Ebony
Sisters Campaigning for AIDS Prevention Education, Harlem
Directors Group, Iniciativa Comunitaria Puerto Rico, Men of
Color Motivational Group, Inc. of Detroit, National Black Lead
er ship Commission on AIDS, National Black Lesbian and Gay
Leadership Forum, National Minority AIDS Council, United
Counties Minority AIDS Care and Education Inc.-Pensacola, Fla.,
and Voice of Women of Color Against HIV/AIDS-New York City.
Information about the march is posted on a web site at
www.aidsaction20.org.
The approximately four-mile-long march will begin at noon.
Additional assembly areas will be set up along the route for
those unable to traverse the distance. A detailed map of the
march will be posted on the web site.
NEW YORK CITY:
'Stop
global AIDS now!'
A mass march through midtown Manhattan is scheduled for June
23. The march and rally will take place just days before the
United Nations Assembly on AIDS convenes for the first time in
New York City.
The protest will "send a strong message" to the July G8
Summit in Genoa, Italy. The meeting used to be called the "G7"
because it brought together leaders of the seven most powerful
imperialist powers. Russia was added after the
counter-revolution brought its trajectory back into the orbit
of finance and industrial capital.
The sponsors of the rally are African Services Committee,
Global-AIDS-Alliance, the Health GAP Coalition, ACT UP New York
and the American Jewish World Services. The groups are working,
their web site states, "in cooperation with allies in the
Global South including NAPWA South Africa and Treatment Action
Campaign (TAC) South Africa."
Scores of diverse national and local organizations are
endorsing.
The demonstration and rally focus on three demands on the
U.S. and the other imperialist Goliaths.
First, "to invest multibillions in grants to fund national
AIDS plans and social infrastructure development projects in
developing countries and international agency initiatives in
the fight against global AIDS."
Second, it calls on the U.S. and other G7 governments to
direct the IMF and World Bank to cancel the national debts of
all the impoverished countries that are heavily burdened by the
epidemic.
And last, it calls on these governments "to invest
sufficient resources and uphold the rights of sovereign nations
to rapidly ensure access to lifesaving medications, including
generically manufactured drugs, at the lowest cost."
Speakers from South Africa, Thailand, Uganda, Brazil, Kenya
and Malaysia are planning to step to the dais at the rally. So
will others from the U.S. and around the world who are living
with AIDS, grass-roots activists and leaders in the AIDS
movement.
The call to action adds, "the march takes place during New
York City's Gay Pride Week, adding even more voices to an
already enormous grass-roots effort."
The call for the protest concludes, "We honor the people who
have lost their lives or their loved ones due to HIV/AIDS
during the past 20 years of this epidemic. We join in struggle
with those that are still fighting."
More information is available at the web site:
www.stopglobalaidsnow.org.
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
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