For meeting the challenge of the AIDS epidemic and its crisis of conscience with vigilant acts of political and cultural provocation – thereby giving voice to the essential creative will of our humanity.
AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT UP) is an international direct action advocacy group working to impact the lives of people with AIDS (PWAs) and the AIDS pandemic to bring about legislation, medical research and treatment and policies to ultimately bring an end to the disease by mitigating loss of health and lives[1] … (on wikipedia 1/2).
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More on wikipedia 2/2: … ACT UP was effectively formed in March, 1987 at the Lesbian and Gay Community Services Center in New York. Larry Kramer was asked to speak as part of a rotating speaker series, and his well-attended speech focused on action to fight AIDS.
Kramer spoke out against the Gay Men’s Health Crisis (GMHC), which he perceived as politically impotent. Kramer had co-founded the GMHC but had resigned from its board of directors in 1983. According to Douglas Crimp, Kramer posed a question to the audience: « Do we want to start a new organization devoted to political action? » The answer was « a resounding yes. » Approximately 300 people met two days later to form ACT UP[2] … //
… demonstrations made … //
… Stucture of ACT-UP:
ACT UP was organized as a leaderless and effectively anarchist network. This was intentional on Larry Kramer’s part – he describes it as « democratic to a fault. »[5] It followed a committee structure with each committee reporting to a coordinating committee meeting once a week. Actions and proposals were generally brought to the coordinating committee and then to the floor for a vote, but this wasn’t required – any motion could be brought to a vote at any time.[10] Gregg Bordowitz, an early member, said of the process:
« This is how grassroots, democratic politics work. To a certain extent, this is how democratic politics is supposed to work in general. You convince people of the validity of your ideas. You have to go out there and convince people. »[16]
This is not to say was in practice purely anarchic or democratic. Bordowitz and others admit that certain people were able to communicate and defend their ideas more effectively than others. Although Larry Kramer is often labeled the first « leader » of ACT UP, as the group matured, those people that regularly attended meetings and made their voice heard became conduits through which smaller « affinity groups » would present and organize their ideas. Leadership changed hands frequently and suddenly.[16]
Some of the Committees: … … (full long text on wikipedia).