"Access for All": Communication Strategy Proposal for Activists at International Conference

AIDS activists' communication to the public can be difficult. Because of the great diversity of issues people are working on, and because of the shallowness of most news media reporting, it is often hard for TV viewers and newspaper readers to understand where protesters are coming from, what our issues are. We need a theme or sound bite to communicate one central idea immediately, to the media and to other conference delegates as well, letting people know right away that we are on their side.

One possible theme is "Access for All" -- meaning access to medical care for HIV and AIDS (and other medical care as well), to information, to prevention programs, and to other services, for all the world's people. Almost everything we are now planning could fit gracefully under an Access banner:

* High prices of protease inhibitors and other HIV/AIDS drugs. Exorbitant drug prices cause different problems in different countries (depending on whether there is national health care, for example), but are destructive everywhere. All price issues ultimately affect people's access to medical care.

* Treatment access in developing countries. In past International Conferences, people from developing countries often sensed that U.S. activism pursued issues less important to them, while neglecting emergencies in their countries. "Access for All" means that we are going to address the problem of most of the world's people having no access to scientifically tested HIV treatments, being completely left out of all the fruits of biomedical research. One part of this problem, the lack of money for treatment in developing countries, is obvious.

Another root of this problem is the excessive focus of almost all mainstream clinical research toward high-priced, often inappropriate treatments. Is it possible that non-proprietary possibilities are not tested -- even with government or foundation money -- because proven treatments available at developing-country prices would also be used in rich countries, threatening key markets for high-priced drugs? Could activists help prevent genocide by raising this issue at Vancouver?

* Research for a CURE. This issue cuts across economic lines, since no amount of money can buy a treatment that has not been discovered and developed. "All" includes those with money, as well as those without.

* Funding issues. "Access for All" includes money issues such as protecting Medicaid and increasing ADAP funding (U.S.), finding more money for research, and funding treatment for developing countries.

* Protecting medical research. "Access for All" includes making sure that necessary medical research is not stopped by animal-rights activists, who are now targeting AIDS in particular in order to get publicity. (This issue also cuts across economic lines, as there is no way to buy your way out of the consequences of damage to research.)

* Prevention. "Access for All" can include prevention, including vaccines, the need for vaginal microbicides or other prevention methods under the control of women, professionally designed and targeted AIDS education unimpeded by politics, and needle exchange.

* Information access. "Access for All" includes computer work (since computer communication is by far the most efficient and least expensive worldwide two-way information system). In addition, "Access for All" can challenge the widespread misbehavior of medical/technical journals, which often require that important work be kept secret in order to be effectively distributed. The registration fee of the International Conference could also be addressed -- the choice of such an expensive format -- and the refusal of the Conference to release abstracts in advance (as many other conferences do, greatly improving peoples' use of scarce time at the meetings). Also included with information access is misbehavior by the media, which has often run amuck at the International Conference by latching onto a catchy theme (such as the "deep kiss," or non-HIV AIDS, or excessive gloom and doom, from certain previous Conferences). Still another information issue is the need for translation of AIDS materials into different languages.

"Access for All" provides a unified public message to which many different issues and projects can relate. The above list is not complete, of course, but illustrates how we can take the diversity of AIDS activism and communicate it coherently to media audiences, and to Conference delegates. A major advantage of having a common theme is to help change the impression of disunity among AIDS activists. We can be working on many different problems and projects, but at the same time we are all working together.

Implementation: The first step is to agree on a common theme; "Access for All" is just one possibility. ("Access" may be too vague to communicate well. Other possibilities: "Treatment for All"; "Medical Care for All People"; ...) The agreed theme can be used in banners, signs, stickers, etc. Also, longer documents including fliers and press statements can relate this theme to the specific issues, problems, or opportunities being targeted. And when people speak to the media or address the Conference, they can relate their message to the common theme when appropriate.

We should choose a theme which will translate well, and prepare signs in many different languages, so that people will recognize their own language, and international reporters can find activists and other individuals from their country to interview. A march which includes the same sign in many languages sends a message of world activist unity, and is accessible to video and print media of many countries.

Ideally, the theme chosen should get final approval at the activist meeting the day before the conference (and perhaps also at the Community Forum). However, much of the material (signs, fliers for advance distribution, etc.) will have to be prepared in advance. The best approach might be to reach agreement soon, among those who can be contacted now. Then, in the unlikely event that the activist meeting in Vancouver decides on something different, it would be OK to have more than one theme at the Conference.

A powerful first step would be to seek agreement not only on a theme, but also on a consensus document suggesting examples of how that theme could be used. This article could serve as an early draft; feel free to circulate it to others who should be involved. Or we might decide on a different approach.

To facilitate preparation of signs and other materials, the consensus document should include translations of "Access for All" (or other theme we select) into many languages.