Who: Hundreds of people with AIDS and their friends and families from ACT UP Philadelphia and allied organizations, including Pennsylvania's largest drug and alcohol recovery programs, and major regional AIDS Service Organizations. ACT UP is the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power, the largest grassroots AIDS protest group in the U.S.

What: AIDS activists from Pennsylvania and throughout the East Coast will target Republican presidential candidate George W. Bush at the Republican National Committee's Washington, D.C. headquarters in a powerful, nonviolent protest Friday, October 13, 2000.

The demonstration will include a stunning image of G. W. Bush as a puppet controlled by drug industry, as well as visual displays such as a procession of coffins and an "empty pill bottle drop" symbolizing the lack of access to affordable AIDS drugs that will result from a Bush presidency. A performance by the ACT UP Gospel Choir is anticipated.

Protest speakers will include national and international leaders in the fight against AIDS, united in their condemnation of Candidate Bush's record on HIV/AIDS during his five years as Texas' governor, and outraged that a Bush presidency will accelerate the AIDS crisis at home and abroad.

When: Friday, October 13, 2000 at 12 noon.

Where: Republican National Committee Headquarters, First St. between C & D, S.E. Washington, D.C.

Why: Despite U.S. policy on AIDS in Africa figuring prominently in domestic debate over the last two years, Bush has refused to state his plan for confronting the AIDS crisis in the U.S. and in the developing world. Bush has refused to respond to criticism of his record on AIDS in Texas, where more than 10,000 people with AIDS have died under his watch as governor.

Background: ACT UP insists that Bush's crushing silence on HIV speaks volumes to his lack of commitment to confronting the global killer: "As Texas governor he can't bring himself to say HIV in public, but he was happy to slash funding to AIDS prevention programs for Latinos," said Jose DeMarco of ACT UP. "The next president will be faced with a colossal public health crisis. Bush will write off the lives of millions of people with AIDS who are denied access to cheap generic AIDS drugs, just as he has written off the lives of Texans at highest risk for getting infected with HIV."

"Bush's record on AIDS in Texas is a dismal failure," said Barry Busch, ACT UP Philadelphia member. "He stands in opposition to sensible, proven effective AIDS prevention programs, like condom education. And when it comes to access to AIDS treatment, drug companies' killer prices on AIDS medication in the third world keeps his fat cat industry cronies happy‹so he's happy, too."

ACT UP has been at the forefront of a domestic campaign forcing the Clinton/Gore Administration to change U.S. trade policy on access to life-extending generic AIDS drugs. Bush's strong ties to drug industry have convinced protesters that Bush will reverse trade policy reforms achieved by ACT UP and other groups. "Bush's 'compassionate conservatism' will mean the deaths of millions with AIDS if he takes the White House," said Diane Huff of ACT UP. "As a woman fighting for the lives of people with AIDS, I must stop Candidate Bush."

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