Join ACT UP at our next meeting at the LGBT Center 7PM May 14, for more planning of actions demanding a Financial Speculation Tax on Wall St. to fund AIDS and global health and other uses, to plan Pride 2012 and other topics.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: Chip Duckett 917-865-4120 For releases, fact sheets, and art visit media.actupny.com
ACT UP PROTESTS WALL STREET OVER 1,000 TAKE TO THE STREETS DEMANDING A WALL STREET TAX FOR HEALTH CARE 19 Confirmed Arrested in Acts of Civil Disobedience
April 25, New York - AIDS activists swarmed the streets of lower Manhattan today as they participated in a demonstration commemorating the 25th Anniversary of the founding of the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT UP). The crowd, estimated by organizers as numbering 1250-1500, listed among its demands the institution of a small tax on financial speculative trading on Wall Street, with the proceeds earmarked for HIV/AIDS and other health services.
The demonstrations began at 9:30 AM (as the Wall Street morning bell rang), when a band of nine ACT UP members, dressed in business attire with Robin Hood hats and masks, chained themselves to the lampposts at Wall Street and Broadway, forming a human chain and blocking traffic on Broadway in an act of civil disobedience to draw attention to the need for the financial speculation tax. After half an hour, police cut the chains and arrested all nine.
A second act of civil disobedience took place later in the morning, as members of the group Housing Works unloaded a truck load of furniture in the middle of Broadway, just west of City Hall Park. Traffic halted as protestors sat on the furniture, calling attention to the cuts in housing support for people with HIV/AIDS and the critical needs for these services. Throughout the day, there were a total confirmed 17 arrests for civil disobedience, with no reports of violence or any problems between police and protestors.
Crowds began gathering on the west side of City Hall at 11 AM, to hear a number of speakers talk about HIV/AIDS issues, including ACT-UP/GMHC founder Larry Kramer, Eric Sawyer (ACT UP and UNAIDS), and Annette Gaudino (Health Care for the 99%). (NOTE: Full list of speakers at the bottom of the release).[UPDATE: All of the 19 ACT UP and Housing Works members arrested have been released
Crowds began gathering on the west side of City Hall at 11 AM, to hear a number of speakers talk about HIV/AIDS issues, including ACT-UP/GMHC founder Larry Kramer, Eric Sawyer (ACT UP and UNAIDS), and Annette Gaudino (Health Care for the 99%). (NOTE: Full list of speakers at the bottom of the release).
The throngs then marched down Broadway, detouring for a demonstration outside the 180 Worth Street offices of the Human Resources Administration, specifically directed at Commissioner Robert Doar and his attempts to institute controversial new policies (like mandatory drug testing and work requirements) in order to rapidly reduce the number of people eligible for government HIV/AIDS services in New York. (Click HERE to see the full article, links to Hi-Res photos and video.)
ACT UP (AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power) Boston is a newly revitalized chapter of ACT UP. Their facebook page says, "We plan on ending AIDS in MA and around the world." The group meets weekly. They are planning a teach-in for May 20th on the financial speculation tax campaign. They are also planning for their participation in Boston Pride and are beginning to do tabling to find recruits for this newly reforming chapter. Their first major action since forming was bringing a bus to NYC to join a march on Wall Street demanding a Robin Hood Tax on trades of stocks, bonds, derivatives and currency. This tax is supported by hundreds of economists.
Below, ACT UP Boston members.
Above, ACT UP/RI and Occupy Providence tell Joe Biden to Support a Wall Street Tax to fund the fight against AIDS! (photo dated Feb 23, 2011)
Below some members of ACT UP/RI at Wall St. Robin Hood Tax Protest.
ACT UP RI was re-formed in November 2011 and began by meeting every other week, it now meets monthly. It brought a contingent of activists to ACT UP/NY's 25th anniversary.
Contact: Matthew Kavanagh, 202-486-2488,
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Chip Duckett: 917-865-4120
AIDS ACTIVISTS ARRESTED ON WALL STREET AT OPENING BELL
Nine AIDS Arrested at Kickoff Action for ACT UP’s 25th Anniversary by blocking access to the Stock Exchange
New York, NY - April 25, 2012: Nine AIDS Activists from QUEEROCRACY and Fed Up Queers affinity group of ACT UP 25th Anniversary chained themselves to the entrance to Wall Street’s Stock Exchange just moments before the opening bell.
AIDS Activists demand a Financial Speculation Tax (or in queer parlance, the FiST), a tiny tax on speculative financial transactions that would raise up to $350 billion in the United States annually to fund 15 million people on treatment by 2015 and lead to an eventual end to the AIDS pandemic. The activists had business suits, which allowed them to blend in downtown, but then donned bandit masks and Robin Hood hats. The international campaign for a Financial Speculation Tax has often been called the “Robin Hood Tax Campaign.” (Click HERE to read more and see video.)
Rachel Maddow looks back at the history of AIDS activism by ACT UP and salutes their success at changing the world's awareness of a disease that has claimed the lives for 30 million people worldwide.
Watch the video of the morning civil disobedience at Wall St. - footage shot & edited by ACT UP's John Riley (slide the slider to near the end of headlines)
ACT UP Activists Detained at 25th Anniversary Protest
In New York City, a number of activists were arrested on Wednesday marking the 25th anniversary of ACT UP — the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power — an international direct action advocacy group formed to challenge the government’s mismanagement of the AIDS crisis. At least nine people were detained after chaining themselves together and blockading a street to call for a tax on Wall Street to fund AIDS services and treatment.
Eric Sawyer, ACT UP activist: "We’ve made a lot of progress since those days when we were here in 1987 for the first protest. We only had one treatment for HIV approved. It was AZT. It wasn’t an effective treatment by itself. There was not enough research happening. There were a number of promising drugs that could be tested that weren’t getting tested. There were no social protections, no anti-discrimination laws. There was no safety net. People with AIDS didn’t have access to Medicaid card, food stamps, to housing. There were no protections for people against getting fired from their jobs, denied insurance, evicted from their apartments, or really to deal with violence that was happening all over against people with AIDS. Their houses were being burned. People were being beaten up. A lot of that has changed, but we still don’t have a government commitment to end the AIDS crisis. We know we could now. We know that if we get people on treatment, their viral load goes away, they become non-infectious. It reduces the infectivity to 97 percent. So we need the funds to get everybody on treatment, not only to keep people with AIDS healthy, but to stop the spread of the virus."
Activists from ACT UP/Philadelphia, ACT UP/ Boston, ACT UP/Maryland and ACT UP/Rhode Island all hope to come to the April 25th demonstration, but to bring them, we need your help. Help us rebuild the ACT UP network.
