Date: Wed, 26 Mar 1997 17:46:34 -0500 (EST) From: John Riley To: Multiple recipients of list Subject: News Coverage of Wall Street Action Here's a copy of our press release following the action that was sent to gay and AIDS media. If you read any articles that cover the action please let me know what media source, if there is a clipping availbale I would like to have it, and their telephone number. Fax all clippings to John Riley at 212-795-7997. Other information can be sent via e-mail. If you could date the periodical I would appreciate that. I was the part of the media team keeping up the media data base and batch faxing. Other ACT UP chapters that are computer able, can get a copy of the list by sending me your address and floppy disk. It is in filemaker pro v2.1 Thanks, John Riley-from the media working group FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: MARCH 24, 1997 CONTACTS: Photos available on request: (212) 966-4873 (Box 2) Jay Blotcher at (212) 533-4913 Eric Sawyer at (212) 864-5672 Katie Krauss (215) 731-1844 MASSIVE DEMONSTRATION BY HUNDREDS OF ACT UP PROTESTERS PARALYZES NEW YORK'S WALL STREET; SEVENTY-THREE PEOPLE ARRESTED Activist Protest Profiteering by Drug Companies, and Federal Refusal to Address Crisis in AIDS Treatment Access NEW YORK - Hundreds of AIDS activists from ACT UP (AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power) converged on Wall Street this morning, stopping traffic and paralyzing Lower Manhattan for more than three hours. The group gathered to protest price-gouging by pharmaceutical companies and cutbacks in Medicaid funding, and demanded Congressional hearings on AIDS drug pricing. Seventy-three people, two thirds of them women, were arrested for acts of civil disobedience near the New York Stock Exchange. The demonstration was called "Crash the Market." More than 500 activists from chapters in eight cities (New York; Los Angeles; San Francisco; Atlanta; Washington, DC.; Las Vegas; Oberlin, Ohio; and Philadelphia) braved subfreezing temperatures to join the march. The demonstration coincides with the tenth anniversary of the beginning of ACT UP. The very first demonstration organized by ACT UP took place on Wall Street in March 24, 1987 to demand corporate and government action to end the AIDS crisis, including a cut in the $10,000 annual price of AZT, then the only drug approved to treat HIV infection. After further protests, the price was greatly reduced. Virg Parks, a member of ACT UP Golden Gate, explained one of the purposes of the demonstration. "Drug company profiteering is still killing people with HIV and AIDS. These corporate giants are pricing their new life-saving AIDS drugs-like protease inhibitors-out of reach of thousands of PWAs. In their greed, they're foot-dragging on development of new drugs that replace existing highly profitable drug combinations. They're refusing to adequately test current AIDS drugs in women and children. And they're rejecting price breaks to the poorest countries hit hardest by this pandemic. The AIDS crisis is not over. It's time for Congress to investigate the AIDS drug industry." -more- Eric Sawyer, a long-term survivor who was one of the founders of ACT UP/New York, added, "At a time when expensive drugs are prolonging the lives of many with this disease, it's outrageous that Clinton would call for Medicaid cuts and per-person caps-which will force many states to slash or even eliminate prescription coverage. This says to poor people with any serious illness, It's only worth keeping you alive if it doesn't cost too much." Demonstrators gathered at 7:30 AM and marched down to Wall Street, escorted by hudreds of police. Several loud and colorful street theater actions occurred, while marchers chanted slogans such as "We die-they make money" and "Wall Street trades on people with AIDS!" Waves of activists decked out with costumes, mock caskets and thousands of pill bottles blocked check points, rushed the Exchange's doors and sat down in the streets, forcing the shutdown of several entrances. During the nonviolent protest, eyewitnesses observed numerous instances of police assaults, both physical and verbal, against those involved in civil disobedience. Two of the arrested activists received head injuries inflicted by police. Bill Thorne of ACT UP/Golden Gate, a person with AIDS, and Michael Lent of ACT UP/Philadelphia, were both hospitalized. The demands of the demonstration, articulated at a press conference before the action, included: To the manufacturers of AIDS drugs: 1. Dramatically reduce the prices of AIDS drugs and make them available for all. 2. Broaden research towards usable AIDS treatments-and a cure-for all populations. 3. Fund treatment education programs targeting under-served groups. To President Clinton and the Congress: 1. Investigate and restrict AIDS drug price gouging. 2. Guarantee AIDS treatment access for all. 3. Broaden research towards usable AIDS treatments-and a cure-for all populations. Funding of the federal AIDS Drug Assistance Program (ADAP) falls far short of the need to cover existing AIDS treatments in many parts of the country. Meanwhile, President Clinton has proposed $22 billion in cuts over the next five years to the Medicaid program, which covers health care for the very poor (after signing last years welfare restrictions that exclude many immigrants in poverty from health coverage), and Congressional Republicans are calling for similar reductions. The March 24 demonstration concluded five days of AIDS activist events sponsored by ACT UP, including a two-day conference at Hunter College. -30-