September 2, 2004 - Over 200 AIDS activists from Housing Works,
New York’s largest AIDS organization, took over Grand
Central Station at 8am Thursday morning. Twenty people were arrested;
over 200 people carried out a loud and raucous legal picket
to protest the Bush Administration's "Compassion Failure"
on HIV/AIDS. The action included a large banner drop, civil
disobedience, and peaceful picketing to call attention to President
Bush’s failure to stem the deadly tide of HIV/AIDS at
home and abroad.
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“On HIV/AIDS and ‘compassion,’ President Bush
talks the talk, but he doesn’t walk the walk,” said
Michael Kink, Legislative Counsel for Housing Works. “We
have more HIV infections, more AIDS cases, more homelessness
and more extreme poverty than we did four years ago.”
“President Bush has kept domestic AIDS funding flat or
cut it, and he hasn’t kept his promises to help Africa
and the rest of the world,” said Kink. Marchers criticized
the Bush AIDS record on:
- Worldwide Access to HIV/AIDS Medications: Cheap generic
drugs could save millions of lives. But President Bush insists
on wasting our money to buy high-cost name-brands, rewarding
his political supporters at the drug companies.
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Real-World HIV Prevention: Federal studies have shown
that clean needles for active drug users and condoms for sexually-active
young people work to reduce HIV infections. But President Bush
puts extremist politics ahead of science and saving lives.
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$ To Fight AIDS in America: President Bush has tried
to dismantle Medicaid, the nation’s largest source of
HIV/AIDS care. He’s letting Americans die on waiting lists
for AIDS drugs. Infrastructure funding has been flat or cut,
despite hundreds of thousands of new HIV infections.
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Housing Homeless People with AIDS: The Bush budgets
have neglected money for AIDS housing, and the President’s
allies in Congress are trying to cut the HOPWA and other crucial
programs at the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
For other photos and info on events from the convention week,
click on these links:
Monday, Still We Rise Poor People's March and Rally
Wednesday, Bed-Stuy Santorum demonstration
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