AIDS Protesters Picket White House, Slam Obama’s Racist ‘Freeze’

WASHINGTON, D.C., January 27 — PLP joined several friends in public health  as well as 40 other AIDS activists as they picketed the White House on the afternoon of Obama’s State of the Union address. Chanting, “Money for AIDS, Not for War” and holding signs saying, “Frozen AIDS Budget Means Waiting Lists for AIDS Housing and Treatment,” we protested Obama’s racist and sexist proposal to freeze federal spending on domestic programs for three years. These are areas where mostly black, Latino and female workers need services the most: public health, housing, literacy, and transportation.

As one activist wrote in her call to action, “This is a nightmare scenario. We’re in the middle of an economic crisis, and people are losing their jobs, their homes, their healthcare. This budget freeze would devastate efforts to address HIV in our communities, and around the world. Waiting lists are growing every day for housing, and AIDS treatment and care. Syringe exchanges can finally get federal funding, but now there’s no new money to fund them. We have to push back!”

Pushing back is okay, but is actually reformist. Such anger must be turned into action to destroy capitalism, a repressive economic system that forces and requires banks and big business to protect their profits at the expense of the working class. The capitalist system places ownership of production in the hands of those with the most wealth.  The super wealthy ruling class, the bankers and corporate owners, own the government, and dictate economic and political policy through their ability to control politicians like Obama.  They don’t get rich by providing money for free AIDS drugs or subsidized housing!

Already, one of the country’s richest counties near D.C. has a waiting list for AIDS medications while people in Uganda wait for others to die so they can get care. The working class must join PLP in order to smash the bosses’ state and create a communist world based on meeting each other’s needs in order to solve these problems.

Communism is a system that prioritizes health because it operates without a capitalist wage or profit system. Communists fight for the working class as we are the ones who produce all value. Communists strive to equalize the opportunities for everyone to contribute to the good of the world.  This future will take a great deal of personal and collective struggle to achieve, but it is the only alternative that can create a world without AIDS, poverty, racism, and inequality. Though our friends have not yet been won to fight for communism, more public health workers and students are struggling to find the solutions to these problems. Ultimately logic, the sharpening class struggle, and conversations with PLP must convince them that only revolution for communism can solve these problems.

PLP talked to friends about the freeze and their faith in the system on the way over to the protest.  One admitted how frustrated she was that Obama would propose these cuts and feared that it would be harder to find a job actually helping people improve their health. Another took it further and explained how the president always represents the interests of the rich. Others differed in their views of Obama.  A young professional wrote how proud she was to see Obama applauded by such important people at his State of the Union speech, while another blasted him for betraying his supporters.  These debates will continue.

PLP joined 65 public health students at a gathering of young professionals the previous weekend in order to discuss the road to struggle. Amid images of Haiti, Iraq, Afghanistan, and the homeless here, two speakers described the structure of capitalism in which a small minority control the wealth created by the masses of people. A public health student and a woman living with, and fighting HIV described their transformation into activists. Breaking into smaller groups, we spent the next hour discussing our role as social activists, identifying our fears and motivations, and providing collective support for each to do more.

It is up to our Party and its friends to point out that it is racism and sexism that allows capitalism to exist and that no amount of social activism will get rid of it.  PLP needs to transform these good intentions and concern into an organized movement for communism that battles the bosses at every step so we can realize our goals of health and equality.