Global AIDS is a Code Red emergency
Activists tell Bush: 'Money for AIDS, not for war'
By Imani Henry
Washington, D.C.
It's Nov. 26, 6 a.m. It's dark and cold as we wait for the
bus to arrive to take us to the AIDS demonstration in D.C. In
total eight buses will bring people from New York City, seven
from Philadelphia and one from Baltimore to join with activists
from the D.C. area.
The buses from New York and Philadelphia are free, sponsored
by various AIDS service organizations. Riders are provided with
breakfast, lunch and subway tokens. The vast majority of these
AIDS activists are people of color-African American and
Latino-reflecting the new face of the epidemic in the United
States and around the world.
Worldwide, AIDS killed more than 3 million people last
year--2.2 million of whom were from Africa. And according to
Centers for Disease Control estimates, 900,000 people in the
United States are HIV-positive, of whom more than 40 percent
are African American and about 20 percent Latino.
There is a high level of political consciousness in the AIDS
movement here. Most of these activists were formerly homeless,
or incarcerated, or depended on drugs. They fight daily against
racist government institutions for access to treatment and
public assistance money. Over the last 12 years, hundreds of
them have boarded buses and planes to protest slashing of AIDS
funding nationally and also in solidarity with Africa.
The call for Nov. 26 listed ACT UP New York, ACT UP
Philadelphia, Africa Action, African Services Committee, Health
Global Access Project, Housing Works, NYC AIDS Housing Network,
Project Inform and the Student Global AIDS Campaign as the
sponsoring coalition. Another impressive list of over 300
organizations worldwide signed on as endorsers.
The uniting slogan and main demand of the demonstration was:
"Money for AIDS, not for war."
This in itself is significant. To link the struggle for
funding to fight the AIDS pandemic with the anti-war movement
is exactly what is needed. The timing of the protest could not
have been better: an anti-war AIDS demonstration five days
before Dec. 1, World AIDS Day, and weeks before the Dec. 8
United Nations Security Council deadline on inspections in
Iraq.
But the fact that President George W. Bush will travel to
Africa Jan. 13-17 is what organizers really seized hold of.
According to a joint update issued on by UNAIDS--the United
Nations AIDS organization--and the World Health Organization on
the global HIV/AIDS epidemic, the number of the world's people
living with HIV today has risen to 42 million.
The report states: "By far the worst-affected region,
sub-Saharan Africa, is now home to 29.4 million people living
with HIV/AIDS," where 10 million young people, aged 15-24, and
almost 3 million children under 15 are living with HIV.
"Bush cannot go empty handed when he goes to Africa at the
end of January," said Sharonann Lynch, an organizer with Health
Global Access Project.
"This demonstration is scheduled to occur at the same time
that President Bush will be completing his congressional budget
request for 2004. The 300-plus organizations from across the
United States and from every continent have signed a letter to
President Bush asking for a presidential AIDS initiative."
The main demands proposed for this initiative are that the
Bush administration:
* provide at least 2.5 billion for global AIDS spending
yearly with a minimum of $1.2 billion directed toward the
Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB, and Malaria;
* provide the funding and personnel needed to implement the
World Health Organization's call to treat 3 million people by
2005; and
* ensure policy changes to make generic essential medicines
more widely available in developing countries and a
comprehensive effort to halt transmission of HIV from mother to
child.
Activists also call for canceling developing countries'
debts to the World Bank.
Federal funding earmarked to fight AIDS internationally has
been diverted to fund Bush's "war on terrorism." For example,
in 2001 the Bush administration launched the Global Fund to
Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. It was receive $7 billion
to $10 billion yearly, but since its launching the fund has
been starved of the resources necessary to carry out its work.
Leaders coordinating the fund reported in October that they now
face bankruptcy and may have to shut down the fund as soon as
the end of this year.
Then, on Nov. 20, Congress shelved the Kerry-Frist bill that
would have authorized $4 billion over the next two years to
fight AIDS internationally.
However, when it comes to the war on Iraq, money is no
issue. According to an Oct. 21 report on CNBC, the
Congressional Budget Office estimates the cost for occupying
Iraq might run as high as $4 billion per month. The Kerry-Frist
International AIDS Bill asked Congress for the same amount, but
over the next two years.
The CBO goes on to state, "The estimated cost for a 'heavy
air war' with one month of combat, but no occupation force, was
$21 billion. Meanwhile, a 'heavy ground war' with three months
of combat, heavy ground troops and a five-year occupation force
could total more than $272 billion."
It is 12 noon when we arrive in D.C. on Nov. 26. Close to
1,000 activists are gathered in McPherson Square.
There are hundreds of people here from Housing Works, Inc.
Based in New York, it is the country's largest community-based
AIDS organization and the largest one controlled by people of
color. Some 50 people came with Stop & Surrender, a
substance recovery program out of North Philadelphia. The
American Medical Student Association has a contingent, along
with Physicians for Human Rights. Many transsexual women and
other trans activists are present, representing another
community highly affected by HIV.
Two white high school students from Clarion, Pa., are on
their way to tour the White House as part of their senior class
trip. These two women tell me that when they saw the
demonstration, they decided that marching to the White House
would be a better use of their time in D.C. They join the
march.
The first rally speaker is Shelia Kibuka, a Kenyan woman
representing the HOPE Africa International. She tells us how
her brother is living with HIV and her nephew is one of
millions who died from the virus.
"We don't want the drumbeat of war in Africa. We already
have a bigger war to fight," she says. She holds up a straw
basket filled with fruit, and says: "George Bush, don't go to
Africa if you don't have an envelope with $5 billion. Don't
come to us with your basket empty."
Salih Booker, executive director of Africa Action, reports
to the rally crowd about the impact of AIDS in D.C. He said one
out of 20 people in the city are living with the virus, making
it fifth among cities in the United States with the highest
percentage of AIDS cases.
"Clean needles save lives! What people need are options,"
shouts Louie Jones, staff member of the NYC AIDS Housing
Network and a person living with AIDS. He calls for more money
for harm reduction programming in the United States, and ends
his talk demanding that Bush stop the war against Iraq and
really fight the war against AIDS.
He estimates that 1.1 million people currently use
intravenous drugs in the United States. Because it is against
the law in 47 states to be caught in possession of drug
paraphernalia, IV drug users are forced to share needles out of
fear of arrest. This puts them at high risk for contracting
HIV.
Even though much has been done to document how needle
exchanges and other forms of harm reduction decrease the spread
of AIDS, funding and licensing of needle exchange programming
in the United States is still an uphill battle. For example, in
New York state, which leads the country in people living with
AIDS, as of 1998 there were only 13 agencies licensed to
exchange needles for the entire state.
"We didn't come here to talk," Housing Works Executive
Director Keith Cylar declares. "We're tired of talking. It's
time for action"--and 35 activists, some chained together, take
the lead banner and charge toward the White House.
The banner reads: "AIDS is Code Red Emergency, We Demand
Billions to Save Lives."
Among the longtime AIDS activists participating in the civil
disobedience are Eric Sawyer, a founding member of ACT UP NY;
Africa Action Executive Director Salih Booker; and both Keith
Cylar and Charles King of Housing Works. They chant, "Money for
AIDS not for war," as they are dragged off into police
wagons.
Reprinted from the Dec. 12, 2002, issue of
Workers World newspaper
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