Aids And Power

One in six adults in sub-Saharan Africa will die in their prime of AIDS. It is a stunning cataclysm, plunging life expectancy to pre-modern levels and orphaning millions of children. Yet political trauma does not grip Africa. People living with AIDS are not rioting in the streets or overthrowing governments. In fact, democratic governance is spreading. Contrary to fearful predictions, the social fabric is not being ripped apart by bands of unsocialized orphan children. AIDS and Power explains why social and political life in Africa goes on in a remarkably normal way, and how political leaders have successfully managed the AIDS epidemic so as to overcome any threats to their power. Partly because of pervasive denial, AIDS is not a political priority for electorates, and therefore not for democratic leaders either. AIDS activists have not directly challenged the political order, instead using international networks to promote a rights-based approach to tackling the epidemic. African political systems have proven resilient in the face of AIDS's stresses, and rulers have learned to co-opt international AIDS efforts to their own political ends. In contrast with these successes, African governments and international agencies have a sorry record of tackling the epidemic itself. AIDS and Power concludes without political incentives for HIV prevention, this failure will persist.

This book provides a global overview of the role of the community sector, examining in detail the origins and activities of community organizations in Europe, the Americas, Africa, South Asia, Southeast Asia, Australia and the Pacific. It also describes the impact of sexuality and gender on AIDS activism and AIDS organizing, as well as broader cultural responses to the epidemic. It charts the emergence and development of the community sector response to HIV and AIDS, illustrating the factors that led affected individuals and communities to organize, question, challenge and redefine initial governmental responses to the epidemic. It describes the contribution of the community / NGO sector to global efforts to prevent the spread of the disease, highlighting tensions which have sometimes arisen within community based organizations themselves: tensions between activism and service provision, between altruism and self help, between volunteer participation and management control, and between fluidity of function and increasing bureaucratization. "Power and Community" has grown out of the author's intellectual and political commitment to the idea that without support from strong community based responses, public health systems will fail to deal with the crisis of AIDS. Dennis Altman analyzes the practical dilemmas which have confronted community based organizations around the world, and the political significance of their ability to motivate and mobilize affected communities. The result is a book which should be a valuable resource for researchers, community organizations, policy makers and activists alike.

AIDS and Power explains why social and political life in Africa goes on in a remarkably normal way, and how political leaders have successfully managed the AIDS epidemic so as to overcome any threats to their power.

This book is about community activism around HIV/AIDS in Australia. It looks at the role that the gay community played in the social, medical and political response to the virus. Drawing conclusions about the cultural impact of social movements, the author argues that AIDS activism contributed to improving social attitudes towards gay men and lesbians in Australia, while also challenging some entrenched cultural patterns of the Australian medical system, allowing greater scope for non-medical intervention into the domain of health and illness. The book documents an important chapter in the history of public health in Australia and explores how HIV/AIDS came to be a defining issue in the history of gay and lesbian rights in Australia.

Winner of the 2022 Lambda Literary LGBTQ Nonfiction Award and the 2022 NLGJA Excellence in Book Writing Award. Finalist for the PEN/John Kenneth Galbriath Award for Nonfiction, the Gotham Book Prize, and the ALA Stonewall Israel Fishman Nonfiction Award. A 2021 New York Times Book Review Notable Book and a New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice. Longlisted for the 2021 Brooklyn Public Library Literary Prize. One of NPR, New York, and The Guardian's Best Books of 2021, one of Buzzfeed's Best LGBTQ+ Books of 2021, one of Electric Literature's Favorite Nonfiction Books of 2021, one of NBC's 10 Most Notable LGBTQ Books of 2021, and one of Gay Times' Best LGBTQ Books of 2021. "This is not reverent, definitive history. This is a tactician’s bible." --Parul Sehgal, The New York Times Twenty years in the making, Sarah Schulman's Let the Record Show is the most comprehensive political history ever assembled of ACT UP and American AIDS activism In just six years, ACT UP, New York, a broad and unlikely coalition of activists from all races, genders, sexualities, and backgrounds, changed the world. Armed with rancor, desperation, intelligence, and creativity, it took on the AIDS crisis with an indefatigable, ingenious, and multifaceted attack on the corporations, institutions, governments, and individuals who stood in the way of AIDS treatment for all. They stormed the FDA and NIH in Washington, DC, and started needle exchange programs in New York; they took over Grand Central Terminal and fought to change the legal definition of AIDS to include women; they transformed the American insurance industry, weaponized art and advertising to push their agenda, and battled—and beat—The New York Times, the Catholic Church, and the pharmaceutical industry. Their activism, in its complex and intersectional power, transformed the lives of people with AIDS and the bigoted society that had abandoned them. Based on more than two hundred interviews with ACT UP members and rich with lessons for today’s activists, Let the Record Show is a revelatory exploration—and long-overdue reassessment—of the coalition’s inner workings, conflicts, achievements, and ultimate fracture. Schulman, one of the most revered queer writers and thinkers of her generation, explores the how and the why, examining, with her characteristic rigor and bite, how a group of desperate outcasts changed America forever, and in the process created a livable future for generations of people across the world.

In this single volume, William N. Elwood has gathered potent evidence of the impact that the HIV/AIDS epidemic has had on the world, its communities, and its inhabitants, and he addresses the role of communication in affecting the way in which people respond to AIDS. With a multidisciplinary group of contributors and topics ranging from political rhetoric to interpersonal discourse, Power in the Blood offers a multitude of ways in which to think about power, politics, HIV prevention, and people living with HIV. Readers will be able to use this information in class discussions, program designs, grant applications, and research, as well as in their own lives. With this volume, Elwood makes a thoroughly convincing argument that communication is the key to understanding, treating, and preventing AIDS, and he inspires further action toward the goal of ending the AIDS crisis.

The first book on the shocking reality of AIDS in Latin America.