Direct
Action Direct
ActionIn order to help you successfully coordinate
direct action against inaction and failure to confront the realities
of the AIDS crisis, here is a list of suggestions for actions
that you can do in your community. Remember, direct action can
take on many forms. Simply talking about AIDS-related issues with
friends, family, and coworkers is a form of direct action. So
is taking over an elected official's office in order to demand
some sort of a response to the AIDS crisis. So is writing a letter
to the editor of your local newspaper or holding a teach-in about
AIDS and AIDS-related issues at a local high school. AIDS activism
is not only about marching in the streets and demonstrating.
With that in mind, here's a list of ideas for you to use and tailor
the issues that are most pressing to your organization and community.
Some of these actions are totally risk free, with no chance of
getting arrested. Others definitely involve the risk of arrest
and will require legal advice and support. For your benefit, we
have broken the actions down into three categories: no risk, low-risk,
and high risk.
1. Write letters to President Clinton and your local politicians
demanding national leadership in response to the AIDS crisis.
2. Organize an obituary action locally: Clip and send obituaries
of people who have died of HIV-related illnesses along with a
personal note to Bill Clinton at the White House.
3. Rent an advertising billboard and let your cornmunity know
that the AIDS crisis is not over.
4. Phone in to local radio talk shows and discuss AIDS-related
issues; organize within your community so that the station is
flooded with calls throughout the program.
5. Book an articulate member of your organization on a local TV
talk show.
6. Hold a press conference around local segments of the Names
Project AIDS quilt.
7. Organize a postcard mail-in campaign to a local legislator
asking them to lobby Clinton for national leadership in response
to the AIDS crisis.
8. Organize a teach-in on AIDS-related issues at a local junior
or senior high school, YW/MCA, YHMA, RA meeting, church or synagogue.
9. Ask your local library to prominently display books and literature
on AIDS and AIDS-related issues.
10. Write letters to the editor of your local newspaper/rnagazine,
discussing AIDS-related issues of concern to your organization.
11. Organize a bake sale or Tupperware party and distribute condoms,
fact sheets and safer sex information.
Organize outreach: set a table or hand out fliers in a local shopping
mall, town square, or community center.
Wheatpaste attention-grabbing posters or fliers around your community.
Pass out condoms safer sex infomation and fact sheets at local
high schools, bars, shopping malls, and sporting events.
Organize a massive demonstration in front of a local government
building that will raise public awareness about AIDS-related issues
and the lack of federal leadership in responding to the AIDS crisis
(block traffic, use creative chants and visuals, etc.).
Hang an AIDS banner from a prominent location (highway overpass,
tall building, church steeple, etc.).
Build a mock graveyard of tombstones (of people who have died
from the government's neglect of the AIDS crisis) and place it
in prominent location.
Stage a massive die-in (a form of street theater in which demonstrators
lie down in the streets symbolically in memory of those who have
died from HIV disease).
Spray paint stenciled messages on streets and sidewalks, reminding
people that the AIDS crisis is not over.
Take over the office(s) of a local politician, insurance company
or drug manufacturer, chain/handcuff yourselves to a desk or doorway
and refuse to leave until your demands have been met.
Interrupt/disrupt a local or federal politician's speech or fundraising
event, demanding a response to the AIDS crisis.
Fill a casket with bloody bones (check with local restaurants
and meat markets) and place it in a prominent location with AIDS-related
messages.
Interrupt a local live newscast with AIDS-specific information
and demands for continued coverage of the AIDS crisis.
Direct Action
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