Thanks to Keston for running through this recently; there was a short
- fairly non-committal - piece on it in the Grauniad yesterday (10/8
p14). It isn't the only occasion on which so-called "intellectual
property" legislation has been invoked in such a harmful way, and it
isn't, of course, the only time pharmaceutical companies have put
their own financial reward ahead of improving health. Nor are US drug
cos the only offenders, of course. And as a piece of Al Gore
self-interest it's not unique. But it is real, and it is flagrant, for
all that the Aids Action Council has denounced anti-Gore protest as
"like blaming Roosevelt for the Holocaust".
Act Up protesters have plagued Al Gore to good effect (media
attention) and Keston mentioned James Love (Consumer Project on
Technology) who's also been effective. But what can we do? I ask this
not as a cop-out or shoulder-shrug of helplessness, but as a
"we-the-poets" (cf Spicer 9th poem for Downbeat) genuine question. The
list below is a list of basic choices, please add to them:
- we can ally as individuals with exisiting protests; write to Al
Gore; lobby our own parliamentary structures etc.
- we can write consciousness-raising pieces in our own circles (mostly
little circles, but still...). If our own profiles are too small to be
seen in this context, we can seek to engage the attention of those
with bigger profiles to raise consciousness.
- we can write poems, in whatever playful or serious or direct or
oblique modes we consider most appropriate.
In all cases, the assumption is that we actually want to impact on the
situation, to make drug cos waive "rights" on AIDS drugs in the face
of national emergency / extreme urgency, rather than just sound off or
save face (not that I'm underestimating the legitimacy of doing these
too). The basic concern must be to overturn the decision. Now: what's
most effective?
RC
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