Subject: MIGRANTS AGAINST HIV/AIDS: May 1996 Contents
From: Migrants against HIV/AIDS <[email-masked]>
Date: 2 May 1996 22:13:11 GMT

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MIGRANTS AGAINST AIDS
A MONTHLY NEWSLETTER ABOUT AIDS ORGANIZING BY BLACK/THIRD WORLD COMMUNITIES
MAY 1996 ISSUE 3 VOLUME 1
ENGLISH EDITION -- CONTENTS ONLY
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[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 [email-masked]
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:
[email-masked]. 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
([email-masked]). 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.

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Getting in touch with us:
-------------------------

Switzerland (Main office)
-------------------------
14 bd Pont d'Arve / 1205 Geneva / Switzerland
Tel/fax: (+41 22) 320 0527

France
------
8 rue Charles Longuet / 92290 Chatenay-Malabry
Tel/fax: (+33 1) 46 32 72 48

United Kingdom
--------------
c/o Migrant Media / 90 DeBeauvoir Rd / London N1 4EN
Tel: (+44 171) 254 9701 Fax: (+44 171) 241 2387

Internet
--------
E-mail: [email-masked]
WWW: http://members.aol.com/migrants