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ACT-UP
ACT-UP, or AIDS Coalition To Unleash Power, was first organized in New York in 1987 in response to the Reagan administrations half-hearted (in fact, almost non-existent) reaction to the AIDS crisis. On 24 March of that year, just three weeks after it was founded, members of ACT-UP staged their first demonstration on Wall Street to protest profiteering by pharmaceutical companies. Although seventeen people were arrested, the media publicity played a part in the FDA's decision to shorten the amount of time required to approve new drugs and treatments. The rest of 1987 saw ACT-UP protests at the White House, the New York offices of Northwest Orient Airlines, and Memorial Sloan-Kettering Hospital. In addition to more research, Federal research funding, and availability of drugs, ACT-UP began protesting discrimination against persons with AIDS and HIV. In 1988, ACT-UP added AIDS awareness and education for women to its agenda, beginning with a protest against an article in Cosmopolitan which wrongly indicated that unprotected sex with HIV+ men was safe for women. A nine day protest focused on the media's failure to cover IV drug use, homophobia, people of color, women, testing programs, prison programs and children with AIDS in its coverage of the epidemic. In the years that followed, ACT-UP began to include "zaps" of public figures, including Jack Kemp, New York Governor Mario Cuomo, Jerry Falwell, Presidential candidate Jerry Brown, in its protest activities. A successful campaign was launched in 1992 to secure the release of HIV+ Haitian refugees from the detention camp at Guatanamo Bay. Over the years, ACT-UP has spawned branches across the US and Canada and all over the world, with chapters in Europe, Asia, Africa, and Australia, each focusing on aspects of the AIDS epidemic which are particularly important to people in their respective countries. ACT-UP chapters and affiliated groups in South Africa and other African nations, for example, are focusing on securing cheap and even free pharmaceuticals for African PWAs, most of whom are young women and children. ACT-UP has also developed into an umbrella organization for numerous focus groups, including the Women's Caucus, which focuses on the effect of AIDS on women, the YELL (Youth Education Life Line) Committee, focusing on safe sex education and condom distribution for youth as well as reaching out to young PWAs, and Visual AIDS, a group of artists which organized the annual "Day Without Art" to draw attention to the impact AIDS has had on the arts community. Frank Moore, who helped design the AIDS awareness red ribbon, was a founding member of Visual AIDS. While it is best known, and even notorious, for its confrontational protests and demonstrations, ACT-UP is also an important education and outreach organization. In addition to unfounded fears people may have about HIV and PWAs, ACT-UP also developed this aspect of its activism in response to the misinformation some organizations still put out about AIDS transmission, the origins of AIDS, safer sex practices, and treatment options for those who have HIV or AIDS. Of particular concern to members is the rampant practice of "barebacking," or condomless sex, especially among young gay men, which they blame in part on the failure by pharmaceutical companies and safe sex advocacy groups to inform at-risk persons that the protease inhibitors currently used to treat HIV are not AIDS cures, do not work for everyone and can have serious side effects for some. ACT-UP also works with AIDS organizations in Third World countries to address the spread of AIDS and the near total lack of affordable treatment for many in those countries. Though criticized by some for its confrontational practices, ACT-UP deserves much of the credit for convincing governments and the medical and pharmaceutical establishments to respond more effectively to the AIDS epidemic. "More," however, is a relative term, and so long as AIDS continues to spread and those with the power to stop it (which includes everyone) continue to think of it as someone else's problem, ACT-UP's work will continue unfinished. And ACT-UP will continue to work until it is finished. Links:
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