BARCELONA CONFERENCE
Grassroots groups say: 'Money for AIDS, not for war'
By Preston Wood
"Money for AIDS, not for war," "USA: Shame! Shame!" These
words rang out at the 14th International AIDS Conference in
Barcelona, Spain, and reverberated around the world.
Militant demonstrations at the July 7-12 conference were
organized by some of the largest grassroots organizations in
the United States. Sponsors of the protests included Gay Men's
Health Crisis of New York, AIDS Project Los Angeles, ACT-UP,
AIDS Vaccine Advocacy Coalition and the Treatment Action Group,
among many others.
Organizers all called for a return to the militant,
confrontational, action-oriented movement that brought the
message of AIDS to the world while right-wing politicians tried
to bury the issue.
Activists pointed their fingers squarely at the U.S.
government for standing by and fiddling while millions have
suffered and died from AIDS.
Millions more have been infected in an epidemic that has
spanned the globe. Protesters demanded that the billions being
spent on Bush's endless global war be instead used to mount a
serious worldwide campaign to save millions of lives.
Protesters trashed and shut down display booths by some of
the giant U.S. pharmaceuticals. These drug giants, hungry for
obscene profits, refuse to provide life-saving AIDS drugs to
countries in Africa and elsewhere ravaged by the disease.
President George W. Bush's man on the scene--U.S. Secretary
of Health and Human Services Tommy G. Thompson--was kept from
speaking by militant AIDS activists. They vowed that the U.S.
speaker would not be allowed to get up and lie about this
country's lack of action in the face of the epidemic and its
complicity in the global spread of AIDS.
Tea cups of water for forest fire
As the AIDS crisis spreads like a forest fire throughout
Africa, Asia and all over the world, the U.S. has contributed
only a tiny amount to international efforts to curtail the
epidemic.
Today, the Bush administration is limiting its donations to
the United Nations Global Fund to Fight AIDS to a paltry $500
million, which it demands be earmarked only for treating
mother-to-child transmission.
Proportional to its wealth, the U.S. is one of the smallest
donors to the fund. Activists have demanded that the U.S., the
richest country on earth, should cough up $2.5 billion annually
to the UN Global Fund to fight HIV, tuberculosis and malaria.
Not a small sum, but nothing compared to the billions being
poured into the Pentagon death machine each year.
Much of the blame for the global catastrophe which is
unfolding lies at the feet of U.S. administrations, which,
because of homophobia and racism, refused to even acknowledge
the existence of the disease until it had taken root.
In Barcelona, protesters denounced U.S. policy as "hollow"
due to Bush's attack on "science-based prevention programs that
talk frankly about sex" and his "support of ridiculous
'abstinence-only' prevention programs."
In addition, Bush has refused to support needle-exchange
programs despite overwhelming evidence that such programs can
reduce the spread of HIV, and do not increase drug use.
Like Ronald Reagan, Bush is catering to the homophobes and
racist bigots who wish to see the rights of people with AIDS
trampled, who despise the very notion of sexual freedom and who
view drug abuse as a crime and not a treatable illness.
The AIDS holocaust
A UN study released just this month shocked even those who
have been struggling against the spread of the disease.
According to the study, 70 million people will die over the
next 20 years unless the rich nations of the world become
seriously involved in curbing the epidemic.
"We haven't reached the peak of the AIDS epidemic yet," said
Dr. Peter Piot, the UNAIDS executive director. "It's an
unprecedented epidemic in human history. If all of Africa is
destabilized by AIDS," he continued, "it's going to have
implications for all continents."
The disease has killed more than 22 million people since its
discovery in 1981. During the few days the Barcelona conference
was taking place, 50,000 people worldwide died of AIDS.
Only last year, AIDS killed 3 million people--2.2 million of
whom were from Africa. And last year HIV infected another 5
million people. In sub-Saharan Africa, 28.5 million people have
HIV or AIDS--more than 70 percent of all those infected
worldwide.
In Zimbabwe, one-third of adults are infected. In Botswana,
39 percent of adults are infected. Life expectancy there has
dropped below 40 for the first time since 1950.
Act up! Fight back!
According to the study, the world must spend $7 billion to
$10 billion annually to combat AIDS.
"It's an enormous scandal," said Piot. "Only 4 percent of
infected people in developing countries have access to the
latest anti-viral drugs, as opposed to about half in North
America. The international community has not given what it
should. They consider it a marginal problem."
So what's stopping the flow of drugs to Africa? In a word,
capitalism. Owners of huge pharmaceutical companies, Bush's
billionaire buddies, are intent on maximizing profits with
their drugs instead of helping humanity. Profits and racism are
behind Bush's shallow handling of this world catastrophe.
Rather than education about the spread of AIDS, Bush calls
for sexual abstinence. Many community-based AIDS prevention
programs are being "investigated" for how they handle their
books merely because they promote sex education and
prevention.
Here in this county, the unfolding crisis exposes the racist
nature of U.S. policy regarding AIDS. In South Florida, 19
percent of Miami-Dade's population is Black, but they make up
49 percent of the AIDS-infected population in the county.
Nationally, the disease is the second leading cause of death
for Black women aged 25 to 44, outpaced only by cancer,
according to the National Center for Health Statistics. In
cities such as Newark, according to a 1994 report, AIDS was the
number one killer of Black women. (Ebony, April)
In a recent study, The Centers for Disease Control verified
that the AIDS crisis in the U.S. is still burgeoning just below
the surface. Out of 575 gay and bisexual men aged 15 to 29
years old tested in cities around the country, 77 percent of
those HIV-positive were unaware of their status.
Among young African American men, 90 percent of those
infected did not know that they were HIV-positive. The CDC also
reported that more than 30 percent of all young gay and
bisexual African American men in this country are
HIV-positive.
According to CDC estimates, 900,000 people in the United
States are HIV-positive, of whom more than 40 percent are
African American, one third white and about 20 percent Latino.
The CDC estimates that gay and bisexual men make up 43 percent
of new infections; 27 percent are attributed to heterosexual
sex and 23 percent to IV drug use.
While Bush is obsessed with his war plans against innocent
people in Iraq, Korea and other countries that won't bow down
to U.S. domination, he doesn't seem to have the time, money or
inclination to mount a war against this terrible disease.
In the past only militant mass action brought results. That
is what is needed now. The militants are right. It's time again
to organize against Bush's attack. The time has come to ACT UP,
fight back!
Reprinted from the July 25, 2002, issue of
Workers World newspaper
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
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