ACT UP 39!!! AIDS Activists Protest Trump Attacks on HIV/AIDS Programs and Healthcare, ACT UP Marks 39th Year by Protesting ICE and War Profiteer Palantir
On a sunny Saturday, March 21, ACT UP (AIDS Coalition To Unleash Power) marked its 39th anniversary of fighting the AIDS epidemic by protesting the Trump administration’s slashing of HIV/AIDS budgets while increasing budgets for ICE and the current war on Iran.
As part of ACT UP’s anniversary, the group is honoring member Mark Milano, who was a longtime AIDS and healthcare activist who died of cancer in early January. He was a leader in the early years of ACT UP and later in the Trump resistance movement through Rise and Resist. Additional ACT UP NY members who have passed away in recent years to be remembered include Nanette Kazaoka, Alan Timothy Lunceford-Stevens, Mel Stevens, Kathy Ottersten, Gerri Wells, and others.
I attended with action with my kid, who was at the ACT UP 29 demonstration with me, a decade ago. Now grown, they brought a friend, greeting many of the activists who’ve known them all their life. We recalled Elizabeth who greeted them with a hug at the action, Andy who screamed, Mark who was there as always, all three gone.
Standing at the AIDS memorial, Jay Walker introduced everyone, recalling Mark Milano, an activist who’d been part of both ACT UP and Rise and Resist.
“He created wins that I benefit from,” said Jay, who confessed he’d been doing demos with Rise and Resist for 10,000 years. “I like to think Mark’s energy is smiling down on us.”
Jennifer Flynn Walker followed, recalling Milano and ACT UP.
“The very best people are in ACT UP, are, not were, that is the tradition,” said Flynn-Walker.
“I want to talk today about someone who carried the banner. You don’t fight because it was easy. You do it because it was right…. He was at every demonstration… He was in ACT UP when it was hundreds and when it was dozens. I can still hear Mark screaming. I recall Milano declaring that Al Gore’s greed kills. And changing US trade policy, laying the groundwork for PEPFAR, the program that saved 26 Million people. He refused to think people are disposable. He was a proud media whore, understanding the way activism works, with big splashy images. Let us carry that banner. We will not go away, ACT UP. fight back, fight AIDS!!!”
Mark Hannay followed by recalling Mark’s work with Rise and Resist, the Cough and disruption of Trump’s inauguration.
“Trump care makes us sick!!!” we screamed.
“You elected a fascist,” we all jeered at Trump was taking his oath of office.
Jerry, Mark’s partner, followed.
It's been loss after loss of late.
Jay called for us to remember those who are gone.
Andy,
Keith,
Tim,
Mel,
Gerri,
Otter,
Bob,
Dean Johnson
Elizabeth Owens,
Name after name of people who were here.
Name after name.
We remember you, we followed.
People who are gone, but still remembered.
Eric Sawyer, one of the co-founders for the group, followed. “Jay referred to the similarities between the current occupant of the white house and Reagan, the doddering old man who was there when this started, who thought we were disposable.” Sawyer recalled Larry Kramer calling him in 1987 asking that he come to the Center for his speech about AIDS. He thought we’d all die if something wasn’t done. He wanted us to start a group that would engage in civil disobedience, like the civil rights movement, with waves of arrests. “Our first action would be on Wall Street, screaming ‘Sell Welcome’ on the floor of the market.”
And the group fashioned a response to the carnage. Sawyer was instrumental in the global response, helping push Bush to create PEPFAR, and keeping the funding going administration after administration. He has court this week, because of his recent DC arrest, calling for those in power to support full funding and allocation of PEPFAR funds. The money is there. Congress has allocated. They refuse to spend it.
Last summer, the Trump administration and its congressional allies enacted spending cuts of $1 trillion that decimated federal healthcare and HIV/AIDS programs and the agencies that operate them. These funds were essentially reallocated from the fight against AIDS to dramatically increase funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP).
Since Trump took office, funding for ICE and CBP has tripled to nearly $200 billion. The ICE portion expanded the personnel who abduct mostly Black and Brown immigrants and their families from their communities and imprison them in concentration camps before deportation. “The living conditions in these camps are inhumane, and healthcare services are nearly non-existent resulting in numerous deaths including people with HIV,” said ACT UP NY member Ryan Foster.
To accomplish this work, ICE contracts with software company Palantir Technologies, which profits handsomely and has an office in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan. Activists are calling for divestment from Palantir Technologies and the defunding of ICE and the war effort.
Meanwhile, the Pentagon is using its new additional funding of $155 billion to wage an unauthorized war against Iran and fund weapons to Israel in the Palestinian genocide. Activists are demanding an end to the war in Iran and the Palestinian genocide.
Finishing speeches we marched and staged a die at Palantir Technologies, in Chelsea at 620 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10011. This location serves as a key hub for their East Coast operations, focusing on financial services and media.
“We’re not going back,” we screamed.
“We’ll never be silent again.”
"Health care is a right!!!"
“Who do you have to blow to get arrested around here,” wondered Virginia, the police not arresting us.
Finally, we stood up and declared victory.
The world is changing as are we.
But ACT UP is still here, pushing and reminding on a gorgeous spring day.
We all get old and sick. It's magnificent to fight while we can and to remember.
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