Burning Man image from David Wojnarowicz

 

ACT UP @ Vancouver
1996 International AIDS Conference

 

Members of ACT UP/New York, Golden Gate, Philadelphia, Paris, and Atlanta went to the XI International Conference on AIDS.

Here is a summary of the various actions that we did and some of the other activist events that ACT UP participated in solidarity with people living with HIV/AIDS.

We went under the slogans:
Greed=Death ~ Demand Access for All.

Golden Urn Awards ~ Other Actions and Zaps ~ ACT UP/Paris Dossier
Solidarity Actions ~ Other Agitations ~ Related Web Sites

DIVA TV Vancouver Program

The Golden Urn Awards

ACT UP gave out Golden Urns to drug companies, public officials, and organizations whose policies and actions are hastening the deaths of people with AIDS.

This year's "winners" were:

• The American Medical Association (AMA) for reversing their policy and now supporting mandatory HIV testing of newborns and pregnant women.
  
  
• Abbott Pharmaceuticals for its AIDS profiteering with its high price for its protease inhibitor ritonavir, refusal to provide patient education information to US clinics and conduct drug interaction studies, and delaying of research in HIVIG, a treatment that may prevent mother-child HIV transmission.
  
  
• Serono Laboratories for its obscene price for recombinant Human Growth Hormone (rHGH), a drug that prevents death from AIDS wasting. [ACT UP Victory - after the Vancouver action, Serono has agreed to demands for a price cap for rHGH and will address other community concerns raised at the FDA March 1, 1996 hearing. We have also heard that after ACT UPper Bill Thorne's presentation, the FDA plans to approve hHGH. click here for the press release.] Activism=Life.
  
  
• Hoffman La Roche for its AIDS profitering with the price of its protease inhibitor saquinavir and denying access to clinical trials for children and adolescents.
  
  
• Bayer for its complicitly in selling HIV-infected blood to hemophiliacs. With an indictment of Merck Laboratories for AIDS profiteering with its protease inhibitor Crixivan.

Other ACT UP Actions and Zaps

• Opening Day March and flyer - AIDS Profiteers Declare War! Opening Ceremony Protest and Banner Drop (Roche, Merck, Abbott: Greed=Death and Demand Access for All)after the speech by ACT UP/NY's Eric Sawyer.

I am afraid that you all will miss the real message from this conference. I speak especially to the media, who have started the spin that "the cure is here, let's dance." full text here

• Zap of French Health Minister Gaymard for his policy of deporting undocumented residents who are HIV+.
  
  
• Zap of presentation by Dr. David Cohn for unethical research practices in a NIH study of clarithromycin.
  
  
• Zap of conference break-out session over ACTG 320, a post marketing study of Merck's Crixivan
  
  
• Zap of conference break-out session about USAID money for treatment programs for Southern countries.
  
  
• Demo protesting the United States and Canada's HIV immigration ban.
  
  
• Zap of Russian government official Vadim Petrovsky for Russian HIV immigration ban and mandatory testing.
  
  
• Zap of BioTechnology Group (BTG) for its price gouging of oxandrolane, a steroid useful in fighting AIDS wasting syndrome.

Dossier

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Solidarity Actions

WAKE UP Canada!

• Kiss-in Zap in front of the Female Health Company about the refusal to market the "Reality" female condom for anal intercourse.
  
  
• Brazilian March for AIDS treatment access and fair drug pricing for the South.
  
  
• Zap of Burmese health minister for violating the human rights of sex workers - organized by the International League of Sex Workers.

Other Agitations

• ACT UP/Buenos Aires denounces its National AIDS Program Chair, Dr. Laura Astarlos, for failing to budget for many basic AIDS treaments.
  
  
• Welcome to Vancouver
  (Flyer given to every conference participant and registered media)
  
  
• AIDS Profiteers Declare War - Whose side are you on?
  
  
• Women's Standard of Care flyer
  
  
• Join Us in Vancouver to Organize Actions

Related Web sites

Sex Workers' Alliance of Vancouver

The official XI Conference Page

 

 

see also important history:

When PWAs first sat at the AIDS Conference Table (Montreal '89)

back to:

Action Reports Index