World AIDS Day 03: Come out + Please Help ACT UP Philadelphia.

[Guest guest]

December 1st is World AIDS Day.

This World AIDS Day in 2003, there are 43 million people living with AIDS

worldwide. 100 million infections are expected by the end of this decade.

Yet, according to UNAIDS, the epidemic is " in its infancy " .

It will be at least 30-40 years before the scourge of AIDS will have peaked.

The entirety of this globalized planet faces the gravest danger in history.

Without major policy changes, A BILLION will be impacted in our lifetimes.

While our appointed leaders and elected officials dither in the margins over

tax cuts and an open-ended war on unspecified 'others', the residents of our

planet are in peril. While the Bush Administration spends time and energy to

*oppose* the demands of people with AIDS who are trying to save the

cash-strapped Global AIDS Fund, the plague continues to accelerate.

With one million in the United States, there are more people with AIDS than

ever before. Yet the Bush Administration's response is to refuse modest

funding increases needed to fund AIDS drug programs, while people with AIDS

die on waiting lists.

US infection rates are climbing. In response, the Bush Administration

launches a constant barrage of punitive audits of community based prevention

organizations -- especially those that serve young queers and/or people of

color. With hateful prevention " policy " like this, can it be any wonder that

many of the most vulnerable suspect that " the Government invented AIDS " ?

On this World AIDS Day 2003, we will commemorate the last World AIDS Day

before the 2004 election. Let's put President Bush and all the

silent-on-AIDS candidates on notice that the lack of a comprehensive global

and national plan to stop AIDS is a foolish unacceptable outrage.

On November 24, the eve of World AIDS Day 2003, please join ACT UP

Philadelphia and other community organizations in Washington DC for a march

on the White House. You can help by turning out yourself, your friends, your

co-workers, and your staff. Join us at noon to step off from MacPherson

Square at the corner of 14th and 'Eye' Street NW.

You can also help in another very important way.

On the eve of World AIDS Day, please help ACT UP Philadelphia pay for

its part of this demonstration. ACT UP Philly is an all volunteer group

of individuals working like mad capable of filling at least 10-12 busloads

with demonstrators.

To bring 500 people with AIDS and their supporters to Washington costs

money. Sadly, ACT UP has no money.

ACT UP Philly will need at least $1100 per bus to pay for the bus, food for

the demonstrators. We will need at least another $3000 for demonstration

props, copies, legal expenses, and a sound system. Even at the 10 buses, ACT

UP still has less than one month to raise $14,000.

On World AIDS Day 2003, please support the urgent fight against the Bush

AIDS policy by enabling the largest grassroots AIDS direct action

organization in the nation to raise a ruckus in front of the White House.

Please sponsor one half of an ACT UP bus-load of demonstrators by

contributing $550. You can do this by sending a check made out to:

ACT UP Philadelphia

POBox 22439

Land Title Station

Philadelphia, PA

19110-2439

You can also donate online by going to ACT UP's web page and clicking the

" donate " link:

http://critpath.org/actup/

Please take the first possible opportunity to help us out -- we have less

than one month to raise the funds needed! ACT UP Philadelphia does not have

enough funds on hand to cover the deposits being requested by the drug

companies right now!

This World AIDS Day 2003, please help ACT UP Philadelphia win the fight for

a world without AIDS -- and a world without leaders ignorant of the costs of

inaction. The scale and scope of the epidemic is so far beyond the meager

sums submitted and hateful policies sponsored by the Bush White House.

Sustained grassroots action is urgently necessary throughout the year and

especially before World AIDS Day. Please support the November 24 action --

and please help support and ACT UP Philadelphia, the nation's largest and

most visible grassroots direct action AIDS activist group.

With hopes for breakthrough victories for people with AIDS in 2004,

Health GAP (Global Access Project)

e: pdavis@...

t: +1 215.833.4102 (mobile)

f: +1 215.474.4793

w: www.healthgap.org