AIDS protest hits drug industry
In Berkeley, Calif., 200 people protested medical
apartheid at Bayer Corporation's research facility on March
5. Thirty-nine were arrested when they marched through the
plant gates, including a 12-year-old girl and Berkeley
vice-mayor Maudelle Shirek. Bayer is a party to the suit
against South Africa.
Shirek, 89, was arrested amid cheers from fellow
protesters. Shirek says she feels strongly about South
Africa's right to pursue affordable AIDS treatment for its
people. An African American civil rights and progressive
activist, she said, "I'm here for justice and health care in
South Africa."
John Iversen, an organizer of the protest from ACT-UP East
Bay, pointed out that only 1.3 percent of pharmaceutical
company income worldwide is from Africa. "I think they can
forgo that much of their profits," he said, defining the
issue as one of extreme greed.
--Keith
Pavlik
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