Jos« o s i ▼ august 1 0 0 2 T 7
ACT UP protests Astra
AIDS activists around the country held simul
taneous actions June 11 against AIDS profiteer
ing.
Protesters in San Francisco, Boston and Los
Angeles let out their anger at Astra Pharmaceuti
cals, the company that produces Foscamet, a drug
that impedes an opportunistic infection that causes
vision loss in more than 20 percent of people with
AIDS. They’re incensed because Astra charges
$21,500 a year to people with AIDS who need
Foscamet. Foscamet is the most expensive AIDS
drug in history.
“I’m here because somebody has to speak out
about AIDS and against the drug empires that are
ripping us off and letting people die,” Frank Rios,
a protester in San Francisco, said.
The activists argue that Foscamet is one of the
simplest and cheapest compounds to produce.
They claim that there is no justification for Astra’s
price, even when taking into account research and
development costs. “Every AIDS organization
has been talking with them for over a year and
they refuse to budge,” an activist whose lover died
of CMV, the infection treated by Foscamet, said.
“No one can afford this.”
“I can tell you that people with insurance are
hesitant to use the drug because it will cap out
their insurance quickly, and then they won’t be
able to get other treatments,” G ’dali Braverman,
an ACT UP member said.
Amid chants, a die-in and showers of blood
stained money. Dr. Andrew Zysman, ACT UP
Golden Gate’s spokesperson at the protest, said
that before Astra realized its drug could be mar
keted to AIDS patients, the price of Foscamet was
considerably lower than it is today. Zysman said
he did not know what that earlier price was. “I
don’t know what the price was before, but I am
certain they did not charge $21,500,” Zysman
said.
“This disease strikes people as they’re dying.
The drug doesn’t save lives, it just gives people a
little dignity as they’re dying,” he said.
Rachel Timoner
There is only us
Democratic presidential nominee Bill Clinton
departed from the text of his acceptance speech
July 16 and made reference to gays.
“It is time to heal America,” Clinton said.
“And so we must say to every American:
Look beyond the stereotypes that blind us. We
need each other. All of us, we need each other.
We don’t have a person to waste. And yet for too
long, politicians told the most of us that are doing
all right that what’s really wrong with America is
the rest of us: them. Them, the minorities. Them,
the liberals. Them, the poor. Them, the homeless.
Them, the people with disabilities. Them, the
gays. We got to where we really them’ed our
selves to death. Them and them and them. But
this is America. There is no them; there is only
us.”
In other convention news, 10,000 AIDS activ
ists marched from Columbus Circle to Times
Square July 14, demanding the Bush administra
tion step up its fight against the disease.
Representing a 300-group coalition called
United for AIDS Action, the protesters demanded
more attention from the White House, national
ized health care, improved research and educa
tion efforts and an end to discrimination against
HIV-positive people and people with AIDS.
Clinton previously had endorsed all the de
mands except that for socialized medicine. In
stead, he “will deliver affordable health care to
every American through a national health-care
plan that...expands choices and guarantees cover
age.”
Actress Jessica Lange, the Rev. Jesse Jackson
and New York Mayor David Dinkins addressed
the Times Square rally.
Meanwhile, a gay man with AIDS addressed
In his acceptance speech, Clinton promised,
the Democratic delegates and prime-time TV “...an America in which health care is a right, not
viewers July 14. Bob Hattoy, an environmental a privilege; in which we tell all our people, ‘Your
adviser to the Clinton campaign, said the Bush government will have the courage, finally, to take
administration’s AIDS efforts are inadequate and on the heath-care profiteers and make health care
discriminatory.
affordable for every family’.’’
“AIDS doesn’t discriminate, but the George
Rex Wockner
Bush White House does,” he said. “We need a
president who will take on the drug companies
that drive AIDS patients into poverty. We need a Healing global wounds
president who isn’t afraid of the word ‘condom’.”
Hattoy urged delegates to “vote as if our lives gathering in Nevada
depended on it. Mine does, yours could, and we
An unprecedented 10 days of events will take
all have so much to live for," he said.
place in Las Vegas and at the Nevada Test Site
Oct. 2 through 12 to demand an end to 500 years
of injustice to Native Americans and an end to
nuclear testing on native lands. Events will in
clude an Indigenous People’s Forum, including
testimony, presentation and workshops; a dem
onstration at the Nevada Test Site Operations
Office in Las Vegas; completion of the final leg of
two 3,000-mile Walks across America; an en
campment adjacent to the testing site; a Native-
led healing ceremony; a multicultural rally; and
mass non-violent direct action. For more infor
mation, contact PO Box 26725, Las Vegas, NV
89126-00725, or phone (702) 386-9834.
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