Bush 'AIDS funds' have reactionary strings attached
By Preston Wood
Throughout the course of the worldwide AIDS
epidemic, the U.S. establishment's handling of the crisis has
been a tragic example of complete capitalist anarchy. This has
been exacerbated by policies driven by bigotry and racism
instead of scientific analysis, and hypocritical morality
instead of compassionate medical practice.
In the early years of the epidemic, the capitalist
establishment used homophobia and racism as a battering ram
against those who fell ill and those who demanded that the
government meet the crisis head-on with all the resources
necessary to deal with this public-health emergency.
This policy, which began with the Reagan administration,
helped create a worldwide disaster. Since then, U.S. rulers
continue to impede the development of a global plan to curtail
and eliminate AIDS.
Now the Bush administration is being widely touted as
suddenly caring about the AIDS epidemic for endorsing a $15
billion emergency bill that is supposed to help deal with AIDS
in Africa and the Caribbean.
It sounds good. But remember, this is the same
administration that has decimated the infrastructure and health
of the Iraqi population without blinking an eye.
President George W. Bush has publicly endorsed a $15
billion, five-year emergency bill to tackle AIDS in Africa and
the Caribbean.
An estimated 25 million lives worldwide have been lost as a
result of the AIDS epidemic. Another 42 million people are
believed to be infected; 29 million of them live in sub-Saharan
Africa, according to the Joint United Nations Program on
HIV/AIDS.
But according to the May 13 Oakland, Calif., Tribune, "AIDS
activists cautioned that what Bush is pushing isn't actually
money--it's more like the promise of money."
David Bryden, spokesperson for Global AIDS Alliance, said,
"It's a recommendation." Bryden called the April 28 Bush
announcement in a Rose Garden ceremony a "freebie" for the
White House. He said it allowed Bush to garner the
public-relations benefits of hyping a $3 billion annual package
while his own budget proposal actually only funds $1.6 billion
for the coming year.
The Tribune reported that a measure allotting up to $1
billion to the Global Fund to Fight HIV/AIDS, Malaria and
Tuberculosis was successfully passed by the House International
Relations Com mittee on April 3 after the administration fought
it. The adminstration tried to tack on amendments that would
have supported "sexual abstinence education" over condom
distribution.
Bush wants AIDS prevention education "rooted in the proven
abstinence-based approach," says the White House. The president
has endorsed an "ABC" plan: "A" for abstinence, "B" for being
faithful and "C" for condom use when appropriate.
Fully one-third of the $15 billion proposed for a five-year
international AIDS program is based on promoting celibacy.
At the world AIDS conference in 2002, a statement signed by
more than 60 major AIDS organizations affirmed that
"abstinence-only" programs are widely rejected by the
organizations most dedicated to fighting the illness in this
country and around the world.
According to AllAfrica Global Media, the Bush team is
already withholding funding for the United Nations Population
Fund, which distributes millions of condoms in sub-Saharan
Africa and other regions.
The number of condoms distributed in the developing world by
U.S. aid agencies has decreased sharply since 1990: 360 million
were given away in 2000, compared with 800 million a decade
earlier.
This AIDS funding has an anti-reproductive-rights component
too. Gloria Feldt of Planned Parenthood calls this another "war
is peace" Bush spin. (Joan Ryan, sfgate.com)
Under the bill, organizations that deal with AIDS prevention
and abortion services must now keep their abortion and
family-planning programs financially and physically separate
from their AIDS work. So poor and rural communities that rely
on one health clinic would have to build a new one--or shut
down their family-planning work altogether--to be eligible for
AIDS funding.
Feldt stressed, "What we need is a comprehensive AIDS bill
that does not tie the hands of health-care providers."
Bush's global AIDS "recommendation" also comes at a time
when his administration has proposed an 8-percent drop in the
main domestic AIDS funding program. However, a 25-percent
increase in AIDS drug assistance is part of that same proposal.
This is a giveaway to the giant U.S. pharmaceuticals that reap
billions of dollars in profits from AIDS drugs while poor
people continue to be infected and suffer from the devastating
effects of HIV infection.
The decrease in funding would especially affect the South,
which has seven of the 10 states with the highest AIDS rates.
There's also a growing rate of the epidemic among African
Americans, women and rural residents in the South, according to
the Southern AIDS Coalition report.
"Faith-based" organizations preaching abstinence are
receiving taxpayer funds to undercut years of AIDS prevention
programs by grassroots organizations and major public-health
programs all over the world.
The Bush administration allows religious bigots to withhold
education on any subject they deem objectionable, such as, of
course, same-sex love between consenting adults.
Rather than supporting programs that encourage condom use,
reactionary zealots are pushing to shift the focus to teach
abstinence, and that same-sex relations are unnatural and
downright evil.
But AIDS activists were an important part of the movement of
millions worldwide who rose up to try to stop U.S. imperialism
from waging war on Iraq. Their message needs to be amplified
even louder by a burgeoning movement that clearly demands with
one voice: Money for AIDS, not for war!
Reprinted from the May 22, 2003, issue of
Workers World newspaper
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
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