[mgj-discuss] demo before the meeting!

[Robert Weissman]

Demo starts at 6. at the Washington
Convention Center, 9th St. & New York Ave. NW.
A guarantee: this one will be fun.


Health GAP * ACT UP

For Immediate Release: June 19, 2002
Contact: Paul Davis (mobile) +1 215 833 4102

Bush-Glaxo Axis of Evil
AIDS President Bush recycles damaged goods in lead up to G8 meeting:
 NO NEW MONEY, NO DRUGS FOR FAMILIES WITH AIDS

WHO: ACT UP, Africa Action, the Global AIDS Alliance, Health GAP, and
Student Global AIDS Campaign

WHEN: Wednesday June 19

WHAT: Angry 6:15 PM press conference outside $25 million "President's
Dinner" GOP fundraiser chaired by EnronGlaxoKline at the Washington
Convention Center, 9th St. & New York Ave. NW.

TARGET: President George Bush, Glaxo CEO Jean Paul Garnier
AT one of the largest political fundraisers in history

WHY: 
* debunk Morning 6/19 Bush global AIDS sham announcement
* demand $2.5 billion for global AIDS in run-up to G7 meeting
* demand affordable generic medications for people in developing
countries
  in run up to WTO patent meeting next week.

WASHINGTON, June 19 Ð Activists denounced the global AIDS plan President
Bush raised this morning in a White House Address. The activist groups
report that the plan is "all for show," containing little new money,
while
sabotaging a bipartisan effort that would have made a substantial new
U.S.
contribution in 2002 to the Global Fund to fight AIDS, TB and Malaria.

Leading AIDS activist groups ACT UP, Africa Action, the Global AIDS
Alliance, Health GAP, and the Student Global AIDS Campaign are
sponsoring an
angry press conference tomorrow evening outside of "The President's
Dinner."
The fundraiser for the Republican House and Senate campaigns is expected
to
take in at least $25 million dollars, and is expected to be the largest
fundraiser in history.

GlaxoSmithKline CEO Jean Paul Garnier is the chair of the fundraising
event.
GSK has raised at least over $250,000 for the event. "Enron-style
influence
purchasing is not surprising for a drug company that is $2.7 billion in
arrears in a tax dispute with the IRS," said ACT UP New York's Sharonann
Lynch. "What is surprising is that, on the same day President Bush has
sold
out millions of people with HIV, he would appear on the same stage with
one
of the companies most responsible for the death of millions of people
with
AIDS worldwide."

President Bush's announcement comes after he personally intervened to
derail
a bipartisan effort that was expected to win hundreds of millions in
emergency funds for the Global Fund to fight AIDS, TB and Malaria. The
Global Fund makes grants for comprehensive, life-saving AIDS treatment,
care, and prevention in poor countries, and is expected to reach
bankruptcy
by this fall when a second round of grants are due.

A widely endorsed $700 million amendment from Senators Specter and
Durbin
narrowly lost a vote in the Senate on June 6, due largely to votes being
promised to Senator Helms and Frist's $500 million bill focusing on
mother-to-child transmission. This fall-back amendment was regarded as a
safer bet that would still have put substantial resources into the AIDS
fight. The $500 amendment was initiated by Senator Helms.

The Helms/Frist amendment was gutted by the President a few hours before
the
vote, reduced to only $100 million (on top of $100 million already in
the
underlying bill). 

"Today's announcement is a shameful face saving move by the President,
said
Allison Dinsmore of ACT UP. "He cut the legs out from under Senator
Specter
and Durbin's bipartisan measure which would have provided urgently
needed
resources to the Global Fund before it goes bankrupt later this year.
Then
Bush robbed $400 million from the modest amendment from Senators Helms
and
Frist. Today, the President tried to make headlines by announcing the
same
money, but delayed for years."

Advance White House sources indicate that Bush plans to fudge facts by
claiming $500 million dollars in new global AIDS spending. "The sad
reality
is, the Bush announcement only has $300 million in it, which does not
start
to trickle out until 2003 and 2004. We also will not know until next
year if
the President is going to request 'new' money, or if he plans to rob
other
important programs as he did with the initial contribution to the Global
Fund," said Health GAPs Paul Davis, Director of US Government Relations.
"It
is dishonest of President Bush to takes credit for $200 million in
spending
for Global AIDS that passed the House and Senate attached to the June 6
emergency supplemental vote. Of the small numbers contained in the final
amendment, Senator Frist falsely claims credit for $200 million, making
a
grab for $100 million that was already in the underlying bill," states
Davis. 

"Had Senators Frist and Helms and President Bush simply sat on their
hands,
the Global Fund would have received $700 million urgently needed new
dollars
from the Specter/Durbin amendment. Many more people with AIDS worldwide
will
die because the Global Fund will have to turn away many solid proposals
before the end of the year." reports Davis.

GlaxoSmithKline has taken numerous steps to block access to affordable
generic medicines in developing countries. Glaxo tied the South African
government up in courts, blocking the Mandela Administration's plan to
manufacture lifesaving Antiretroviral drugs. GSK has also used its
fundraising prowess to influence the President and congress to impose
unilateral trade rules that block access, including language slipped
into
the "Fast Track" trade bill currently making its way to a conference
committee.
 
"After we met with USTR staff Tuesday morning about the upcoming TRIPS
Council meeting on the export of affordable generic drugs to
impoverished
nations, it was clear that GSK's Garnier has bought the policies of the
Bush
Administration," stated Asia Russell, Health GAP's Director of
Multilateral
Institutions. "Next week at the TRIPS Council, the Bush Administration
is
going to oppose the export of affordable generics to impoverished
nations."
The TRIPS Council is the WTO body that administers international patent
agreements.

Besides promising too little money, activists lambasted the White House
plan
for ignoring the immediate, overwhelming need in the developing world
for
medicines and HIV treatment.

The Bush plan prioritizes paying only for mother to child HIV
transmission
prevention programs, not to buying life extending medicines to treat
people
already infected with HIV. "President Bush is refusing to commit the
modest
resources necessary to stabilize a continent being decimated by a
treatable
disease," said Russell. "By choosing to focus primarily on 'innocent'
newborns, Bush is leaving women, families, and communities for dead. We
hope
the majority of the resources will be put into treating families and
communities, so that infants will have stable homes."

"The bodies won't stop piling up until Bush commits $2.5 billion in new
money for HIV that prioritizes getting medicine into the hands of people
with AIDS," stated Russell.

-end-