Fri May 24 2013

AIDS demonstration in New York City
by Gerard Flynn
May 3, 2012

The New York City Police Department arrested nine housing and AIDS activists Wednesday near City Hall, before the start of a march on Wall Street, which called on Mayor Bloomberg to improve services for those affected with HIV/AIDS, while demanding a new tax to fight the epidemic's global threat.

Chanting "Tax Wall Street. End AIDS," activists, all from advocacy group, Housing Works, chained themselves to a couch, sink and even a toilet, blocking Broadway traffic around noon.

However, using heavy duty chain cutters, police snapped demonstrators free after ten minutes, before dragging them off to awaiting vans.

The demonstration was a joint effort of Occupy Wall Street movement and the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT UP) and was planned to commemorate the 25th anniversary of a demonstration protesting the steep cost of HIV medication.

Organizers estimated that at least 2,000 turned out for the trek to Trinity Church, overlooking Wall Street.

ACT-UP's Chip Ducket told the crowd that Wall Street can well afford a "Financial Speculative Tax," on shares, bonds and other financial transactions.

"This tax would cost about $50 for every $100,000 transaction and would raise over $400 billion to fight the HIV/AIDS epidemic," he told the noisy crowd, which banged drums and chanted "ACT-UP. Fight back. Fight AIDS," as several dozen cops in riot gear looked on.

Ducket said the tax would also help curb speculative transactions in the high turnover financial markets that have been cited as damaging to the economy and and largely responsible for the current economic recession.

He views were echoed by ACT-Up's Cristina Winsor, who is also a member of the Ocuupy Wall Street movement.

"Though things have improved a lot for people living with HIV/AIDS, there are lots of funding problems for people living with the disease. There is an AIDS epidemic raging globally and we could use that money to improve access to services worldwide," she said.

Housing Works' Douglas Sanders condemned Mayor Mike Bloomberg for not fulfilling campaign promises made eight years ago to increase funding in the fight against HIV/AIDS and for not increasing services for those who are homeless and living with the disease.

"Bloomberg. Bloomberg. Billionaire. People with AIDS, he don't care," an angry Housing Work's co-founder, Eric Sawyer, told protestors.

En route, demontrators surprised cops by taking their march to the offices of the Human Resources Administration at 180 Water Street, where they called on HRA Commissioner Robert Doar to stop listening to right-wing media to bash the homeless and others stricken with HIV and AIDS.

"Stop using the New York Post as your mouthpiece. HIV and AIDS is not the fault of people living with HIV or AIDS," Duckett boomed into a microphone.

Due to the alarming increase in HIV-drug resistance, protestors also called on Wall Street to put more money into the risky biotech sector, which has seen a severe drop in investment over the past three years.

"Venture capital firms see HIV drugs as a high-risk investment," said David Miller, from the National Association of People Living With AIDS. "If in a drug trial 10 people die out of 3,000, the FDA will shut it down and bang there goes your money," he said.

He added that New York City shares the dubious honor of having the highest ratio of HIV-drug resistance in the nation and that homelessness among the HIV population actually increases one chances for drug resistance. The Big Apple has also one of the highest infection rates in the country, he said.

Outside Trinity Church organizers read the names of some of those who have died in the global AIDS epidemic. There were no arrests.