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NEWS & LETTERS,
August-September 2002
Forum on AIDS
Chicago--Gregg Bordowitz and Darrell Gordon, longtime
AIDS activists, spoke at a Video Machete forum, July 26. Bordowitz compared the
recent AIDS conference in Barcelona, Spain, to that in Durban, South Africa two
years ago. Barcelona had a heavy presence of pharmaceutical companies, as well
as political figures including ex-president Bill Clinton. Neither had been
prominent in Durban. There, the grassroots Treatment Action Campaign brought
5,000 people out into the streets wearing T-shirts emblazoned with “HIV+.”
Around four million people in South Africa are HIV-positive and around 29
million people in sub-Saharan Africa as a whole. This compares to about one
million in the U.S. The spread of AIDS is perhaps the most serious threat to
humanity today. China has 70% of intravenous drug users testing positive. HIV
has been discovered in every province. In India there have been three to four
million reported cases, with eight or nine million estimated. The fastest growth
right now is in Eastern Europe, with the epidemic of intravenous drug use there
spreading HIV through needle sharing. There has been a huge shift in AIDS activism’s focus
as the emidemic has spread in the Third World. Bordowitz, who is a
filmmaker-activist, showed some footage from his film “Habit” on the
Treatment Action Campaign in South Africa. TAC’s focus is on the delivery of
HIV treatment to the poor. In response to pressures, pharmaceutical companies
lowered prices of anti-retroviral drugs by 40-50% but many in poor countries
still can’t afford them. Brazil has been producing its own generic version of the
drugs since 1992, in violation of patents, and as a result it has cut mortality
rates by 50%. This is in line with the results in developed countries. Brazil
provides the drugs free to HIV-positive people. India also produces its own
drugs, but it doesn’t have a system of delivery to the poor, only the wealthy. When South Africa threatened to break the patent
agreements, 40 pharmaceutical companies threatened a lawsuit, but it was dropped
under pressure. That is one of the recent victories in AIDS acivism. For now the
World Trade Organization won’t bring action against countries that violate
trade laws in production of AIDS drugs. Another victory in recent years has been the role of ACT
UP Philadelphia. Bordowitz and Gordon described how the largely African-American
led group successfully pressured the Clinton administration to reverse its
support for the WTO’s moves against Brazil, as well as how it brought the
issue of AIDS to the attention of the anti-globalization movement. --Gerard Emmett |
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