“So that breakthrough…that we thought was gonna happen in ’88 or ’89 if we just worked fast enough..it did happen. But not until ’96 and so..a lot of people died. Maybe if Reagan had started putting money into AIDs a little earlier they wouldn’t all be dead.” -Mark Harrington.
How to Survive a Plague brilliantly captures the fight between the ACT UP community and government authorities. Using more than 700 hours of footage from ACT UP demonstrations, meetings, conferences, as well as news conference and interviews, this documentary presents a more honest history of the AIDS crisis than the one presented to us throughout our education. While I learned a lot about this ongoing struggle, it was not surprising to see the clashes between the people and the authorities. In the past, we’ve read about the building New York City as well as current efforts of rezoning; in each we see the exclusion of and a failure of outreach by the government to the communities directly impacted. Similarly, this film showed ACT UP demonstrating against secret meetings by the N.I.H. as well as the lack of the voice of the AIDS community in deciding drug regulations; “Dr. Anthony Fauci is deciding the research priorities for the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. We’re down here ’cause we think we should be deciding the research priorities, because these are the people who know what’s going on ’cause they’re dealing with it every day” (~50 minutes into the film).
If any cause wants to fight for its rights, I would recommend they watch this documentary. ACT UP’s success was phenomenal and well-deserved. There are two main reasons ACT UP was able to all it did, and I believe this is something any cause should take note of. First is their determination and motivation, even in the face of hopelessness. Many believed they would die before a cure was found, but they did not allow that to stop them from fighting. It was clear from the footages of the protests and demonstrations how dedicated these members were in getting what they wanted. Second, and I think this is more important the first, is that they were educated on the issues. Thanks to Iris Long, they educated themselves on system, the research processes, how organizations like the FDA and NIH work, on the various drugs that existed in other countries, etc. They came together and read medical journal articles (science club) and “became scientists to some degree.” In short, they spoke the language of those in authority. They did not give the authorities any opportunity to corner them into a wall. With all this information, they were able to create “A National Aids Treatment Research Agenda” for the government to adopt. This really shows how powerful knowledge is. Unfortunately, with the advancement of social media outlets, individuals often time take stances without doing any form of research and end up doing more harm than good. (Not saying there aren’t individuals who educate themselves, but you get my point)
Discussion question: How can causes today use ACT UP’s effort as a model to structure their fight?
