By Marty Logan
NEW YORK, Aug 23 2002 (IPS)

AIDS support groups say they will not abandon their in-your-face protest tactics despite a demand from a dozen members of the U.S. Congress that the organisations be investigated for disrupting a recent speech by a high-level government official.

Activists from a number of U.S.-based organisations shouted, booed and blew whistles, to drown out a speech by Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson at the International AIDS Conference in Barcelona last month.

Afterwards, 12 members of Congress wrote Thompson’s office asking for details about which activists used federal funding to travel to the conference and how much public money was spent on the meeting, reported the Washington Post this week.

Organisations contacted by IPS said they could prove that no federal funds financed their delegations to Barcelona, and that the letter is really an attempt by conservative politicians to put a stop to advocacy work for people with HIV/AIDS.

“We know that we have to talk about sex and drug use if we’re going to stop people from being infected with HIV/AIDS,” says Marty Algaze, communications director of Gay Men’s Health Crisis in New York.

But “there are a lot of Republicans in Congress who don’t want us to talk about those things”, he added.

The protest letter originated with the Values Action Team, a group of three dozen members of Congress who are staunchly pro-choice and promote what they refer to as “family values”.

The caucus recently lobbied President George W. Bush to cut funding to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) saying it works with groups in China that force abortion and sterilisation.

Despite the report of a U.S. fact-finding mission that found no evidence to support the allegations, the money — 34 million dollars — was withheld from the UN agency.

The letter to Thompson also says the AIDS conference discriminated against religious groups that wanted to be heard at the meeting.

“We would request that unless the International AIDS Conference can guarantee the freedom of speech to U.S. representatives and discontinues its discrimination against those of religious faith — in particular the Catholic Church — that the U.S. withhold assistance to future conferences,” reads the text.

A staff member who works with the group said Thompson’s office has not yet sent the requested information. The letter-writers are waiting for that material before deciding on their next step but are already questioning spending priorities, added the staffer.

“In the United States we have 1,200 individuals with HIV who have absolutely no access to AIDS medicines and we have long lists of individuals who are on AIDS housing lists,” said the staff member, “yet we’re spending millions of dollars to put on conferences and send individuals overseas who turn a public health conference into a political statement.”

Algaze said his group, which receives about 30 percent of its 21- to 22-million-dollar budget from governments — mostly local and state — is already discussing options with other AIDS organisations and political supporters.

“We obviously are concerned that there are certain people in the administration who are intent on tackling AIDS organisations because they don’t like us talking about (certain) things.”

Terje Anderson agrees. “I think they’re using this to look closely at some of the groups that they’ve been fighting,” says the executive director of the National Association of People With AIDS, which receives about 40 percent of its budget from Washington.

“I certainly understand their political sensibilities were offended by it,” he adds, “but I think they failed to look at the legitimate policy differences we have with this administration.”

“Frankly, it’s unfortunate that we had to travel to Barcelona to meet our secretary,” said Anderson.

After his speech, Thompson met with members of some of the protesting groups. Since then, says Anderson, “there have been doors that opened in the administration that we didn’t know how to open, or didn’t even know about”.

“I would do it (the protest) again. But I wouldn’t want to have to do it again,” he adds.

Algaze says AIDS groups have no choice but to be vocal. “This is the only way we’ve been able come this far in the fight against HIV/AIDS. If it wasn’t for the militant activists, people would still be dying in much higher numbers.”

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