Activists Force Edwards to talk about AIDS
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Rochester activists were pleased and very surprised when John Edwards addressed the global AIDS crisis in the opening moments of his speech here Sunday.
Rochester activists were pleased and very surprised when John Edwards addressed the global AIDS crisis in the opening moments of his speech here Sunday.
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Members of the Student Global AIDS Campaign have been
country, trying to get him to include the global AIDS crisis in his speeches. However, Edwards has, for the most part,
avoided talking about the issue in depth. On Thursday, a group of Columbia students interrupted his speech by standing up
and chanting "Campaign on AIDS!" Edwards responded by praising the students, but not discussing AIDS in detail.
A group of Rochesterians who had been following the student global AIDS campaign, decided to take action when they heard
Edwards was coming to the area.
"We want to bring attention to the global AIDS issue because the presidential candidates aren't talking about it," says Mary,
a nurse at Strong Hospital. The goal was to make the world AIDS crisis a national issue by pressuring the presidential
candidates to talk about it. The group that came together around this issue was quite diverse, including medical students,
activists, nurses and even some who don't fall into trite journalistic categorizations. Many of the people involved had
never taken part in activism before.
The group went to see Edwards in Buffalo on Friday. They tried to ask him questions on AIDS, but were not very happy with
the result. "He gave a speech that was very uplifting, [but] he wasn't accessible to talk in any substantive way," Dave, a
local resident, said.
Mary also went to see Edwards in Buffalo. "I asked him if he would talk about global AIDS and he said `yes maam. I will
talk about global AIDS.' He gave a speech [where he didn't talk about AIDS] and he ended his speech with, 'and we talked
about global AIDS' and gestured to me. I found that to be pretty disingenuous."
So when Edwards came to Rochester, folks were ready to up the ante. They brought signs and prepared chants to interrupt his
speech during key moments. "We're out here in force tonight [to] encourage him to talk about a plan for the global AIDS
crisis," Dave, said before the event. They planned to make the links between Edward's rhetoric and the world AIDS crisis,
for instance when he talked about trade they would chant "Global AIDS... Generic Drugs!" "Edwards likes to talk about
trade," Mary explained, "but there's a glaring space where he could talk about saving literally thousands of lives everyday
if he were to promote generic drug trade."
It turned out that activists didn't need to resort to quite so confrontational tactics, as Edwards not only talked about AIDS
in the first few minutes of his speech, but also discussed specifics like generic drugs and the global superfund. "We have a
responsibility to lead the way and make sure the cause to fight global AIDS is fully funded. To make sure that we have a
trade policy that allows less expensive drugs, that can be used to treat AIDS, available in countries around the world,"
Edwards said.
The activists said that the primary reason Edwards talked about AIDS was because the campaign to get him to address the issue.
Because Edwards talked about AIDS so prominently in his speech, the activists decided to refrain from using their most
disruptive tactics.
Still, the group wanted to make sure that Edwards gave specific plans for fighting AIDS. When he talked about improving the
image of America around the world, the group held up a sign saying "$30 Billion to the Global Fund for AIDS," and chanted
"GLOBAL AIDS... GLOBAL FUND!" Edwards replied "Yes, that's exactly the right amount too." The group shouted back, "$30
billion?" and Edwards replied, "Yes, $30 billion by 2008."
Afterwards the group was pleased with how the speech went. Nanafuea, a University of Rochester student, said, "I thought he
addressed the main issue, global AIDS, and he put the right number down. He just has to come up with a plan to make it
happen. [...]Definitely a victory for the global AIDS campaign."
