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[11/30 is the eve of World AIDS Day (12/1) as well as a day of protest at the World Trade Organization (WTO) ministerial meeting in Seattle.]

What: 600 people will march and rally Tuesday, demanding an end to US policies that threaten and enforce sanctions against countries utilizing legal methods for accessing essential medications.

March from Bristol-Myers Squibb to White House: to leave visual evidence of big business and Clinton Administration collaboration on restricting AIDS drug access through US trade policy & WTO regulations.

Civil disobedience: Solemn funeral at White House, arrests expected, primarily people living with HIV. Skeleton figures carried on stretchers to White House fence, hundreds of mourners.

Gospel Choir to present Golden Urn award to Bristol-Myers and Clinton Administration for contributing to AIDS death rate that has lowered life expectancy by 10-25 years in African nations

Release of White Paper: Case studies of US interference with treatment access in South Africa, Thailand and other nations; Clinton officials placing drug company lobbyist concerns over public health and intıl trade law in bilateral and WTO negotiations; analysis of inflated AIDS drug prices designed to gouge 1st World markets.

Where:
First Stop, 12 ­ 12:15pm: Bristol-Myers Squibb, 655 15th
Street, NW (@ F. Street)

Second Stop, 12:30: White House, Pennsylvania Avenue side

The theme for World AIDS Day 1999 is "Listen, Learn, Live: World AIDS Campaign with Children and Young People." 1/3 of the estimated 33 million people living with HIV at the end of last year were young people between 15 and 24 . Fully half of all new HIV infections occur in this age group. 9 out of 10 of these young people live in developing nations with no access to the life-saving therapies that have drastically reduced the AIDS death rate in the US. (WHO). Last week, 10 people from ACT UP Philadelphia and New York occupied the office of US Trade Representative Barshefsky to protest US opposition to poor countriesı WTO resolution to exempt essential drugs and living organisms from patent requirements.

For the past year, US activists have opposed US efforts to prohibit compulsory licensing (off-patent production) and parallel importing (purchasing through a third party country) of pharmaceuticals.

After confrontations with Gore on the campaign trail and large protests in NY, DC and Philly, the Clinton administration reversed its position on the South African law allowing these measures. Activists are demanding that the stated deal with South Africa ­ acknowledging that compulsory licensing and parallel importing of essential medicines should not be prosecuted by the US ­ become the global policy for US trade negotiations.

This month, the Thai government filed suit against Bristol for strong-arming patent extension on ddI.

"The Bristol Myers CEO took home $147 million in one year alone. They give $100 million to five African nations in a controversial PR move that will not provide a single pill and was opposed by public health officials in several countries.," explained Lee Scott of ACT UP. "Our government helped Bristol block generic production of ddI, an AIDS drug, and taxol, a cancer drug, in Thailand."

"We finally did the right thing for South Africa," said ACT UPıs John Bell. "But saving lives in Thailand, Brazil and India is just as vital as saving lives in South Africa. The US must cease interference with legitimate steps to get lifesaving drugs to people with HIV."

World AIDS Day efforts for access to medication are taking place in South Africa, Thailand, Brazil, New York, & Washington DC

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