On Monday, March 5, a diverse coalition of community activists and organizations led by ACT-UP East Bay, will lead a rally demanding that Bayer stop promoting a policy of medical apartheid. Over 200 people, including a fifth grade class from the New Age Academy, will be protesting Bayer's inclusion in the Pharmaceutical Manufactures Association (PharMA) lawsuit against the South African government. Bayer is one of 42 plaintiffs who are seeking to prevent the government from producing generic AIDS drugs or importing them at the lowest market price, from such countries as Brazil, India and Thailand. The first defendant in the case is former South African President and Nobel Peace Prize recipient Nelson Mandela. The Berkeley rally is part of an international day of action against the PharMA lawsuit with protests taking place in Brazil, Paris, Berlin, Thailand, South Africa, New York, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Boston and Washington DC.

Access to affordable drugs is the difference between life and death for the over 25 million people in Africa, and over 36 million people throughout the world who are affected by the disease. " I have been infected for 20 years, but I am alive today because I have access to the drugs that the South African government is trying to make available to its people. " Explains rally organizer John Iverson of ACT UP East Bay. " It is criminal that the pharmaceutical companies are doing their dreadful best to withhold medicine from the millions who can't afford Western prices when much cheaper generic treatments are available."

"We will demonstrate our disgust and demand that Bayer drop out of the lawsuit against South Africa " says Berkeley City Vice Mayor, Maudelle M. Shirek who will lead a group of peaceful protestors in an act of civil disobedience at Bayer's front gates.

In 1997, South Africa adopted a law to permit importation of the cheapest available drugs (parallel importing) and manufacture of low-cost, generic drugs (compulsory licensing). Both of these measures are authorized by international law, notably the TRIPS agreement. However, a cartel of big pharmaceutical companies have blocked the application of the South African law through legal maneuvers for the last three years. Since the lawsuit was filed in 1998, 400,000 South Africans have died of AIDS.

Life-saving treatments are now available for as little as $1 a day from generic drug manufacturers such as Cipla in India. Cipla has partnered with the humanitarian group Doctors without Boarders to provide treatment at the rate of $350 per year per person. " I have watched people I love die in violent pain, while pharmaceutical companies brought in murderous profits, "says Oakland community activist Phillip Machingura from Zimbabwe. "I will be out on the streets protesting because my loved ones deserve to have access to the drugs that will cease their suffering. I am hopeful that our protests will impact companies such as Bayer to do the right thing and drop out of the lawsuit."

At the rally organizers will be collecting contributions to support South Africa's Treatment Action Campaign in their efforts to transport the drug fluconozole from Thailand, an act that openly violates and challenges the PharMA lawsuit.

Speakers will include: Berkeley Vice Mayor Maudelle Shirek, Berkeley City Council member Kriss Worthington, South Africans Bongane Nyathi and Sagie G, San Francisco Supervisor Matt Gonzalez, Father Bill O'Donnell, Kay McVay, President of California Nurses Association, John Iverson, Act Up/East Bay, Rev. Mark Wilson, Gerald Lenoir, Oakland Needle Exchange, author Diana Russell, Dr. Jeff Burak, Professor of Medical Ethics, UC Berkeley.

Endorsers: All above Speakers and Survive AIDS, Middle East Children's Alliance, SF Supervisor Tom Ammiano, Alameda County Supervisor Nate Miley, Berkeley Councilors Dona Spring and Linda Maio, AIDS Medicine Recycling Project, National Lawyers Guild-SF, Global Exchange, Women's History Library, National Clearinghouse on Marital and Date Rape, Center for Environmental Health, Women Against Sexual Slavery, Ruckus Society, Center for Third World Organizing., Lesbian and Gay Insurrection, East Bay Democratic Socialists of America, Oakland Gray Panthers, Former Berkeley Councilors Nancy Skinner and Ann Chandler. Participants in civil disobedience include Barbara Lubin, Maudelle Shirek, Kriss Worthington, boona cheema, Medea Benjamin, Father Bill O'Donnell, Don Jelinek, Diana Russell and several other community activists.

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