GRASSROOTS LOBBYING AND ORGANIZING OPPORTUNITIES

Last month, AIDS TREATMENT NEWS examined the arguments now being heard to reduce Federal AIDS research ("New Threats to AIDS Research Funding," issue #97, February 16). This article briefly describes some options by which you can make your voice heard in Congress.

There is a widespread myth that an "AIDS lobby" is already highly effective. The fact is that while AIDS organizations have been effective in other ways, much less has been done to reach Congress than most people realize. The great majority of members of Congress are uninformed on AIDS, and have no staff member following it, because they have never heard from voters or opinion leaders in their districts that AIDS matters to them. Only a few members of Congress are carrying all the weight on AIDS -- and they need to be supported.

Do not think that Congressional funding for AIDS research proves that lobbying is already being taken care of. Most members of Congress basically want to avoid AIDS. By voting for research money, they can tell themselves that they have done their duty and then forget about AIDS; they can hope that if they propitiate the monster, maybe it will go away. The political organizations we do have deserve much credit for what progress has been made, but there is only so much they can do unless they get more support from the public. It would be a great mistake to complacently assume that our own efforts have been powerful, when in fact the glaring reality is how little Congress has heard from the public, compared to the importance of AIDS.

The essence of lobbying today consists of mobilizing public support, letting members of Congress know that voters, opinion leaders, and campaign contributors in their state or Congressional district care enough about an issue to visit their offices, write, call, send Mailgrams, etc. Usually it is not necessary for an organization to address everybody in Congress at once, because a few strategically-placed or swing votes will be crucial at a particular time. But an organization working on AIDS needs to have an ongoing presence among the voters of as many districts as possible, because today power in Congress is decentralized, meaning that a group may need the active support of dozens of Senators or Representatives to get something done. It is no longer enough to convince just two or three chairpersons of key committees, as was often the case 20 years ago. And as battles in Congress develop, organizations may need to mobilize audible public support within days or sometimes hours as new districts suddenly become strategic. But today, unfortunately, many of even the most important members of Congress have nobody in their districts working with their offices on AIDS.

The next few months will be especially important in developing next year's budget, aid to areas heavily impacted by AIDS, funding for early treatment, passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act, and perhaps removing travel restrictions for persons with HIV entering the United States.

If you have only a little time or money to contribute toward Congressional lobbying, then you can work with organizations that will help you be heard by your Congressman or Senators at the most important times. If you can contribute more effort, then you can help by organizing others in your area. In either case it is important to find one or more organizations that you are comfortable working with, as it would be very difficult to follow the details of what is happening in Washington on one's own.

Here are some groups which have, or are developing, programs for involving individuals who want to work directly with their representatives in Congress on AIDS issues. Our list, which is in alphabetical order, is not complete; these are the ones we reached before press time. We would like to hear about others. (Note that this list does not include some very important organi- zations, such as the American Civil Liberties Union AIDS and Civil Liberties Project, which work directly with Congress or with other aspects of AIDS lobbying and public policy, but do not focus on organized programs directed to the general public to help individuals communicate with their representatives in Congress about AIDS. Also, we did not include those directed to state or local governments, such as the California AIDS Life Lobby in Sacramento.)

* AIDS Action Council. This group, whose mission is to lobby for sound Federal AIDS legislation, works primarily with community-based organizations across the United States. Any individual or organization which would like information about lobbying can contact the Council at 2033 M St. NW, Suite 801, Washington, DC 20036, phone 202/293-2886.

Note: AIDS Action Council also convenes the National Organizations Responding to AIDS (NORA), a group of 140 national organizations which meet regularly in Washington.

* American Foundation for AIDS Research (AmFAR). AmFAR is beginning to develop a lobbying program targeted to a specific purpose -- supporting funding for community-based clinical trials organizations. About 40 such research groups already exist; only a few have Federal funding, and there is no guarantee that this component of Federal research will be continued. The lobbying program aims to help these groups let their Congressional representatives know that they exist, what they are doing, and why community-based research is important. AmFAR has prepared an information packet on lobbying. For more information, contact Bill Flanagan at AmFAR, 212/719-0033.

* Gay and Lesbian Political Action Committee (GALAPAC). This group includes a number of elected officials in Congress and local offices; it is a supporting member of five major AIDS or gay political organizations (National Organizations Responding to AIDS, AIDS Action Council, and National Gay and Lesbian Task Force in Washington, D. C. ; California Life AIDS Lobby in Sacramento; and the International Lesbian and Gay Association in Stockholm, Sweden.) Its program includes encouraging citizen lobbying for AIDS action, including a national telephone campaign to increase AIDS funding.

Now through the end of April, it is especially important to lobby six Representatives, who are swing votes for AIDS funding in the House. They are Leon Panetta (D-CA), Frank Guarini (D- NJ), Anthony Beilenson (D-CA), Bernard Dwyer (D-NJ), Willis Gradison (R-OH), and William Thomas (R-CA). If you live in their districts or know anyone who does, have them contact GALAPAC.

For more information, contact GALAPAC at P. O. Box 46577, West Hollywood, CA 90046, or call 213/931-6195.

* Human Rights Campaign Fund (HRCF). This gay rights political organization, the largest in the country, runs a very effective program called "Speak Out," which sends pre-authorized messages from constituents to their representatives in Congress at critical times. About 70 percent of the issues they select concern AIDS. About 20,000 people throughout the United States have participated. Persons in the program also receive a newsletter, Capitol Hill Update, several times a year.

Congress is very much aware of the difference between orchestrated and unorchestrated mail. Letters written spontaneously by constituents are better indicators of public opinion than mail generated by organized campaigns. But orchestrated mail does show how well organized a constituency is in a state or Congressional district. In the past, the HRCF would sometimes find that the majority of the public was on its side of an issue, but there was no mail on its side and an avalanche on the other, orchestrated by conservatives and fundamentalists. The Speak Out program helps redress that imbalance.

Persons can also earn money by signing up new members for this program -- sometimes $15 to $25 an hour, especially while working at public events and demonstrations.

Besides the messages to Congress, the HRCF also encourages people to visit their representatives at their local offices, and organizes parties in peoples' homes to discuss how to assure a better Federal response to AIDS. When elected officials visit Washington, HRCF gets them in touch with the important people on Capitol Hill. And anyone visiting Washington can call HRCF to make arrangements for meeting with their representatives -- and to be briefed on what is happening on the Hill with AIDS.

For more information, write to Steve Endean, Human Rights Campaign Fund, P. O. Box 1723, Washington, DC 20013, or call 202/628-4160.

* Mobilization Against AIDS (MAA). MAA, best known for organizing the international candlelight memorials and for its work on Federal-budget and on treatment issues, is starting a new lobbying effort which so far is fully active only in California. People who join this program agree to write at least four personal letters a year to their Congressional representatives. Meanwhile, MAA follows all the (California) representatives and the AIDS issues in Congress, and lets people know when it is most important for them to write.

Persons in other states can join the program, but they will be contacted infrequently because MAA does not have the resources at this time to keep track of all Congressional districts in the country.

Mobilization Against AIDS can be contacted at 1540 Market St., Suite 60, San Francisco, CA 94102, phone 415/863-4676.

* National Gay and Lesbian Task Force (NGLTF). This organization, a leader in the gay rights field but not primarily focused on AIDS, is planning an AIDS and gay rights lobbying month in June. For more information, call 202/332-6483.

For More Information

For background on how organizations can influence Congress in today's environment, see:

* How to Win in Washington, by Ernest and Elisabeth Wittenberg, Basil Blackwell, Cambridge, MA 1989. This is a short (about 150 pages) and very practical book by two Washington, D. C. public-relations professionals. It describes many examples of successful lobbying campaigns, and points out that they all follow similar patterns. This book may be hard to find in stores outside of the Washington area, but it is worth ordering if necessary. It can be ordered through bookstores, or from the distributor at 800/445-6638.

* The Power Game: How Washington Works, by Hedrick Smith, Ballentine Books, Random House, New York, 1988. The author, former Washington bureau chief of The New York Times, wrote a much longer (almost 800 page) book on how Congress works -- and doesn't work.

Neither book has any information about AIDS.