ACT UP COMMEMORATES 25TH ANNIVERSARY BY RETURNING TO WALL STREET FOR MASSIVE PROTEST
To Be Joined by "OWS" - For an End to Financial Crimes Against People with AIDS and the 99%
SAVE THE DATE - APRIL 25TH 2012
April 12, 2012 (NEW YORK) - To commemorate its 25th anniversary, the AIDS activist group
ACT UP will return to its roots and stage a massive demonstration and march on Wall Street
- on Wednesday, April 25 - starting at 11 am at City Hall and ending on Wall Street.
Hundreds of protestors are expected to converge for a daylong siege in Lower Manhattan.
ACT UP (The AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power) will be joined by Occupy Wall Street (OWS),
the organization making history this year and last with its public encampments and series of
protests against the global financial community. The groups are joining forces to pump up the
volume on a growing nationwide outcry for a "Financial Speculation Tax" (Fi.S.T.) on Wall
Street.
The groups are calling on local, state, and federal legislators to "give Wall Street the FiST,"
which is needed to fill AIDS funding gaps and - once and for all - provide universal healthcare
in the US. It's time for effective healthcare to be made available to everyone - to the 99%, not
just the 1%.
The Fi.S.T. does not target individual investors, and would not affect regular bank transactions.
Instead, it would place a small tax - a mere fraction of one percent - on speculative trading
by Wall Street investment banks, hedge funds and other large financial institutions.
HIV treatment saves lives - by preventing new infections and keeping those already infected
from reaching end-stage AIDS. However, of all people worldwide in need of access to HIV
treatment, only 44% have it. More than 8 million people do not. In the United States today,
3,840 people who qualify for federal assistance to pay for HIV treatment are on waiting lists -
or in other words, are at risk of dying from AIDS.
"The AIDS crisis is not over," says veteran ACT UP New York member Ann Northrop. "But,
we know it could be," she adds.
AIDS treatment - when combined with simple prevention interventions - is the key to
breaking the back of the epidemic worldwide. In addition to saving lives, early HIV/AIDS
treatment reduces the risk of transmission of HIV by 96%. And so, with sufficient funding for
treatment and prevention, we can turn the tide on AIDS. Globally, HIV/AIDS has claimed over
30 million lives.
Both ACT UP and OWS suggest the revenue from a Financial Speculation Tax would be
significant - potentially in the hundreds of billions of dollars. The revenue from this tax should
be used to fund the end of the AIDS pandemic, i.e. to fill in US budget gaps in the fight against
HIV/AIDS at home and abroad. It should be used to provide treatment, services and prevention
to thousands of Americans and millions around the world. The groups also say the tax could
help pay for universal healthcare in the US.
"We are organizing this historic united front to bring our message to governments and to Wall
Street financiers who are sitting on the key to ending the AIDS epidemic," according to Eric
Sawyer, a founding member of ACT UP New York. "There is no excuse. We have the knowhow
to end AIDS. It is lack of funding and political will that keeps us from reaching universal
access to HIV treatment worldwide."
Additional organizations are expected to join the demonstration in New York City, including
Housing Works, Health GAP, National Nurses United, OWS Healthcare for the 99% Working
Group, Visual AIDS, MIX NYC, Le Petit Versailles, Queerocracy, Queering OWS and others.
The action will be in New York on April 25th - but the need is global. And, the time is now.
AIDS is now. END AIDS NOW!
ACT UP & Occupy!
Tax Wall Street!
End AIDS!
The AIDS crisis is not over - but it could be! Tax Wall St. to End AIDS
actupny.com | @actupny | on.fb.me/actupny
###
Source: http://actupny.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=93:act-up-25th-anniversary-action-media-advisory&catid=1:latest-news&Itemid=50
Contact:
Chip Duckett
Telephone: 917 865 4120
Email: media@actupny.com |
