Acting Up in the 21st Century

During CHAMP's March community forum to create intergenerational dialogue within the AIDS movement around the ACT UP Oral History Projects, we watched an incredible video compilation of ACT UP protests from the early days of AIDS activism, put together by panelist and ACT UP Oral History Project co-creator Sarah Schulman. An opening scene showed people sitting in the very same room at the LGBT Center that we were sitting in. The room was hadn’t changed in 25 years.  The crowd was even pretty similar-mostly white faces. The only difference was the most recent forum, while a good turnout for a 2009 event, didn't draw as much of a crowd as the standing-room only ACT UP meetings of yore.

This sort-of déjà vu seemed a metaphor for AIDS activism today. Watching the video, I was struck how some of the slogans-"AIDS Budgets Kill!"-and chants-"Act Up, fight back!" can be found in many of the rallies I've attended over the last two years.  As a young person new to the movement, it was incredible seeing the uncanny similarities that I hadn't fully grasped until I saw it firsthand.

ACT UP Philadelphia member Pascal Emmer noticed the similarities too when he first became involved in queer activism. "Most of our works and rhetoric was borrowed from earlier movements, but it lacked a historical context,” Pascal said. Emmer and his friend Jessica Rodriguez joined ACT UP Philadelphia where they started the group's oral history project to highlight the stories of the movement and preserve them for memory so these stories aren't lost.

But another lesson I took from the history of ACT UP is that that the movement had incredible power and force because it happened organically as a response to crisis, death and powerlessness among people who were used to having some power. It also employed new methods of activism and empowerment that hadn't been seen before. This made would-be activists, the media and government take notice.

Intergenerational dialogue

Another interesting part of the evening was when Pascal mentioned that "tactics of civil disobediences carry different risk for different communities. When white people got crap beat out of them it brought a lot of media attention in a way it doesn't for people of color. It's a stark example of how white privilege affects tactic."

An audience member named Ryan challenged Pascal's claim that the early ACT UP members, most of whom were gay, had any such privilege. "We were very oppressed by mainstream society," he explained. Also, he stated AIDS is different now "because we have a whole roster of meds people aren't dying as much."

Moderator James Learned, a ACT UP New York veteran who has worked with CHAMP, politely thanked Ryan for his question and moved on. While that was probably smart in terms of civility (James earlier spoke of the "challenges, barriers and opportunities" of intergenerational dialogue), I would have liked to see the panelists from ACT UP Philly and New York respond to Ryan's claims, and tell him AIDS isn't over in the U.S. and overseas and that it just kills different people than it once did. And that just because medication exists, doesn't mean everyone has access to it. But Ryan also had a valid point that the fear and death that gripped the gay community in the 1980s no longer exists. I would have liked to see that discussion explored, since it alluded to a generational disconnect that was alluded to by the panelists..

The bottom line is AIDS has changed, and the "AIDS movement" has lost members and hasn't replenished its ranks. A member of the audience asked panelist and ACT UP Oral History Project co-creator Sarah Schulman, how to recreate the energy among today's youth, particularly those most affected among poor communities and people of color.

Sarah said there's not that much established movement movers and shakers can do to recreate this. "Vanguard movements can only do so much. No individual can make a mass movement." She said she expects the next movement will come from young people who will use today's technology to do things we've never dreamed of.

What's being done now

But just because AIDS rallies don't draw the same crowds or attention they did in the past, doesn't mean that there's not incredible work being done by activists on the ground.

Campaign to End AIDS is an activist network working to organize empower people with AIDS to fight for their rights, and has had some early successes, particularly in the South. The activism of global AIDS group Health GAP, an outgrowth of ACT UP Philadelphia, is a key reason for PEPFAR and more affordable medications in the developing world.  And, of course, CHAMP is mobilizing and supporting activists organizing for HIV prevention justice.  ACT UP NYC still meets on Mondays and is takling new campaigns around healthcare reform.

ACT UP Philadelphia is one of the groups at the forefront of confronting the epidemic as it exists now. With CHAMP's Project UNSHACKLE, they hosted a forum about families affected by prison. As one of the organizers Waheedah Shabazz-El noted, many people in poor communities don't want to talk about AIDS, but they'll come to organize around prisoners' rights, and then can be drawn into the discussion on AIDS, which they were reluctant to talk about.

And these are the roots of new movement that will hopefully grow even deeper roots and generate more power. In the Q&A, New York City AIDS Housing Network member David Golden concurred, saying ACT UP needs resurgence but, "I would not like to see an ACT UP of the 80s and 90. I want to see an ACT UP of the 21st century."

Jose de Marco, a panelist and longtime member of ACT UP Philadelphia, noted, "We have to think: Why aren't the people most affected in this room?  We have to do more organizing with affected communities. If people have condoms and are still getting infected, we have to examine what's going on."

Diana Scholl is a Housing Works staff member and a writer of the Housing Works AIDS Issues Update.