Issue No. 179: ACT UP Action Tomorrow!

Join ACT UP's 25th Anniversary Direct Action

ACT UP and OCCUPY
TAX WALL STREET!
END AIDS!

April 25, 2012
At 11am
Massive demonstration and march.
Starts at City Hall (Broadway and Murray Street)
Ends at Wall Street.

ACT UP is calling for a small tax (0.05%) on Wall Street transactions and speculative trades in order to raise the money needed to end the global AIDS epidemic and provide universal healthcare in the US.

More info: 212-966-4873 | www.actupny.com | info@actupny.com

Facebook ACT UP NY Page | www.facebook.com/actupny

Twitter: @actupny | #taxwallst | #endaids

How can a Financial Speculation Tax help end AIDS?

- THE SCIENCE: The scientific community and AIDS activists agree: we now know how to break the back of the epidemic. New evidence shows early HIV treatment can reduce sexual transmission of the virus by 96%.

- THE REALITY: HIV treatment is needed to save lives, prevent illness, and reduce new infections, but there is a huge TREATMENT GAP and WAITING LISTS are growing in the U.S. and abroad.

-IN THE U.S.: 3,840 people who qualify for federal ADAP assistance to pay for HIV treatment are still on waiting lists. In addition, people with HIV and vulnerable communities in the U.S. need support and social services. Due to budget cuts, these essential services have been rolled back. Funding from the tax could also help pay for universal healthcare in the U.S.

- WORLDWIDE: Only 44% of people who need HIV treatment have access – more than 8 million do not. Revenue from the FST could bail out the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB, and Malaria, which cancelled its last round of grants to poor countries due to a lack of resources. Funding the Fund can help to make good on the global agreement – signed by the U.S. – to treat 15 million people by 2015, up from 6.6 million now. It will take around $22 billion a year between now and 2015 to finance the global HIV fight to save millions of lives and stop the HIV epidemic in its tracks.

- WHAT'S AT STAKE: AIDS has already claimed over 30 million lives. ACT UP is calling for an FST to help raise the money needed to close the gap in access to life-saving HIV treatment, and to END THE AIDS CRISIS.

The FST demonstration is linked to a global Robin Hood Tax campaign to fund
global health, global public goods, jobs, and to tackle climate change.