From: Migrants against HIV/AIDS Subject: MIGRANTS AGAINST HIV/AIDS: May 1996 Contents Date: 2 May 1996 22:13:11 GMT APOLOGIES FOR CROSS-POSTING. PLEASE E-MAIL US IF YOU WISH TO STOP RECEIVING INFORMATION FROM MIGRANTS AGAINST HIV/AIDS. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- MIGRANTS AGAINST AIDS A MONTHLY NEWSLETTER ABOUT AIDS ORGANIZING BY BLACK/THIRD WORLD COMMUNITIES MAY 1996 ISSUE 3 VOLUME 1 ENGLISH EDITION -- CONTENTS ONLY --------------------------------------------------------------------------- [Remember to send in your subscription fee -- the survival of the newsletter depends on subscriptions and nothing else. Subscription info is in the last part of this file. Thanks.] - Front page article: Ghosts in the Fortress, by Walid Taqatqa. Taqatqa, a Palestinian street corner HIV & drug worker, has been on the streets of Rotterdam for the last six years. But this isn't his story. It's the story of the North African Arab youths who risk their lives to cross the Mediterranean into the "promised land" of Europe. "These youths," says Taqatqa, "are the lost generation in our modern society." Many die of AIDS. Taqatqa clears the ideological rubble about whether or not to "help" illegal immigrants, about the Double Penalty (prison + deportation), the impact of crack, and inability of white social work to find answers to such questions. - London. Positively Irish Action on AIDS fights back against "market management" In April, the Health Commissioners who control AIDS funding in London announced that Positively Irish Action on AIDS, a self-help group established in 1989, would lose all its funding. PIAA's activists talk about the need for organizational self-determination and the responsibility of public health authorities for supporting community-based HIV care. In addition, we report on PIAA's contribution to building a strong European network of ethnic minority AIDS groups, and about PIAA's response to the anti-Irish racism of the London Times. - International news: Blacks quit GMHC, Israel dumps Falasha blood, UN puts HIV & migration on human rights agenda. Miscellaneous news items. - The Netherlands. African migrants face government discrimination, mandatory testing. By KA Adanse-Pipim, AFAPAC. The racist mythology about AIDS and Africa, the mandatory HIV testing of asylum seekers, and access to health care for undocumented people with HIV. These are three of the crucial questions for AFAPAC, an African group working in Amsterdam. - Sweden. Swedish goodwill? Africans arriving in Europe know more about HIV than do Africans long settled in Sweden, say activists. - United States. "Rest assured, we will mobilize again." Faced with government discrimination, the New York Haitian community fought and won. An article reprinted from the weekly Haiti Progres. To receive a sample issue of Migrants against HIV/AIDS by e-mail with the full text of these articles, send an e-mail message to migrants@iprolink.ch with the subject "SEND MIGRANTS." To receive the French-language edition, use "SEND MIGRANTS FRENCH". An Acrobat PDF of the newsletter is also available at our web site (http://members.aol.com/migrants). WHAT WE STAND FOR ----------------- Migrants against HIV/AIDS (Migrants contre le SIDA/HIV) is a monthly, independent newsletter in French and in English which focuses on grassroots activist efforts by refugee, migrant, and Black/Third World communities in Europe to end the HIV/AIDS crisis and its health, social, cultural, economic, and political consequences. HIV is not likely to be the primary concern for refugee, migrant, and Black/Third World communities. However, AIDS struggles - whether to stop the deportation of people with AIDS, to guarantee access to proper care and housing, to insure that people know about HIV, to contest political or religious conservatism in whatever its form - are intrisically connected both to the broader realities faced by Black/Third World communities in Europe today and to the legacies of community struggles. 'The fight against AIDS' is of necessity a struggle for social justice and economic empowerment. We believe the political struggle against the institutionalized racism of Fortress Europe is a precondition to obtaining health for all. The staggering diversity of migrant, refugee, and Black/Third World communities -- of the different consequences of HIV/AIDS for each of our communities, of all the things which divide us -- make cross-border collaborative work and learning about each other's living traditions of resistance and struggle for health, for equality, and against racism an imperative. Many have expressed the need for a forum open to the diversity of experiences and perspectives of refugee, migrant, and Black/Third World activists and their allies on the frontlines of AIDS activism today. We believe the time is right for an independent publication to document on the situations and to report on organizing efforts, cases, and campaigns.Inside Articles on... -------------- In the coming months, Migrants against HIV/AIDS will focus its coverage on France and Britain, as we continue to develop our network of contacts, correspondents, and distributors throughout Europe. * Medical staff or immigration police: Is informing on undocumented, sick people with AIDS a European problem? * A review of WHO's first European report on collaboration between governments, NGOs, and ethnic minority organization in AIDS prevention, support and care * Report: Are traditional AIDS service organizations able to respond to migrants' needs? * Sweden: Are racist border controls the pretext for cutting HIV/AIDS migrants programs? * Antiracist sex education in the age of AIDS * The new hysteria: Striking down The London Times' Anti-Irish racism, Paris Nouvel Observateur invents 'heterosexual', African HIV * Dismantling the myths of 'African' AIDS * AIDS activism in South Africa * Asylum for fear of persecution because of sexual orientation or HIV status * Down South: African-American teens and HIV in Atlanta, USA * Black people, AIDS, and British public health * South Asian AIDS organizing in London * The British Asylum Bill: Consequences for people with AIDS * French-style apartheid: Racist health 'care' for Arab & Black African prisoners * 'No Justice, No Peace': Struggles in France to stop the deportation of Arab and Black African PWAs * Remembering Nordine Zaimi (1962-1991), Gay Beur author of Contes des vies rusees et Le tombeau de la Folle * Drugs in our community: The story of Espoir Goutte d'Or neighborhood association * Fightin' shame: Silence around AIDS deaths * Racist discrimination in the hospitals: mandatory testing or "sentinel surveillance"? Some of the people we've asked to contribute or interview in the coming months ----------------------------------------------- Toufik Abdalla, (CRIPS, Paris) * Jamel Boussafara and Mohamed Ben Saad (Tunisian Workers' Association, Paris) * Rosalind Chirimuuta (co-author of Africa, AIDS, and racism) * Zoubida Djelali (Medecins du Monde, Paris) * Mohamed El-Moubaraki (Migrations-Sante, Paris) * Khurram S. Hassan (HIV teen counselor, Atlanta) * Cari Hutton (Immunity, London) * Nacer Kettane (Intermed Assistance, Paris) * Charles Mayombwe (Positive Care Link, London) * Brahim Miloudi (Espoir Goutte d'Or, Paris) * Kim Mulji and Hansa Patel (NAZ Project, London) * Kanyana Mutombo (Regards Africains, Geneva) * Amosy N'Koma, (African Health Team, Sweden) * Ooonagh O'Brien and Siobhan Riordan (Positively Irish Action on AIDS, London) * Sofi Ospina (Projet Migrants, Geneva) * Djouher Oulde Meziane (URMED, Paris) * Pratibha Parmar (London) * Jayshree Pillay (London) * Margaret Poultny and Dorothy Mukasa (Uganda AIDS Action Fund, London) Sebastien Souded (Paris) * Mark Watson (Stonewall Immigration Group, London)* and many more... The "Kiosque" is yours ---------------------- We welcome short items on any topic: events, press releases, news notes, readers' campaign news. Send reports together with illustrations and photos to us. Remember to give a name, address, and telephone info so readers to contact you. But if Migrants against HIV/AIDS is to be useful to the campaigns going on throughout Europe and elsewhere, we urgently need to increase the newsletter's size and circulation. And we can only do this with your financial support. Correspondents & distributors ----------------------------- We are constantly seeking to broaden our network of correspondents and contacts, as well as extend our distribution network. We need correspondents in every country, from every community. The only obligation is to send at least one news item by the 15th of each month. We will also provide issues of the newsletter for organizations interested in distributing it in their local area. Questionnaire ------------- We are preparing an open-ended questionnaire about the AIDS & human rights situation for migrants, refugees, and Black/Third World communities. Please contact us if you are interested in participating and/or collaborating on development, distribution, or publication of the questionnaire. Editorial working committee --------------------------- We are in the process of bringing together people willing to be on our editorial working committee with a broad range of skills and experiences. The committee will be responsible for the newsletter's continued activities and development. French and English editions --------------------------- Migrants contre le sida/VIH, the French-language edition of Migrants against HIV/AIDS, usually appears a few days before the English edition does. The content is identical, although in some cases the amount of coverage of a particular issue may differ. Article submission info ----------------------- We welcome unsolicited submissions. Our deadline is the 15th of every month. Articles may be edited for style and length (and will be translated into French/English), but any changes will be discussed with the authors. Manuscripts should be submitted, if possible, on 3.5" Mac or PC disquette, Microsoft Word format. Submissions may also be e-mailed to: r-sadki@worldnet.net. Letters to the editor should be succinct and may be edited for length About electronic publishing --------------------------- Migrants against HIV/AIDS seeks to support efforts to democratize access to electronic media, to make it economically and politically useful to grassroots Black/Third World organizations and activists. We publish an electronic edition of the newsletter which can be found at our web site (http://users.aol.com/migrants) or requested by e-mail (r-sadki@worldnet.net). We welcome requests for training and support from interested groups. Be a charter subscriber! ------------------------ Every month, you can depend on Migrants against HIV/AIDS for clear and precise news, information, and reports you can use. We document local efforts, initiatives, and campaigns by Black/third World, refugee, and migrant communities and their allies and offer an open forum for debate on relevant issues. In addition, we report on what governments, the European Union, and international organizations are doing on a pan-European level. Migrants against HIV/AIDS receives no funding from anyone. We are entirely dependent on our readers and subscribers. Please take the time to fill out this coupon and return it with your subscription fee. The results of our subscription and support campaign will be published later this year. YES! I want to support Migrants against AIDS. Send me my first issue today! 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