FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

NEW YORKERS PROTEST MAYOR ADAMS’ DISMANTLING PUBLIC HEALTH SERVICES FOR WORLD AIDS DAY

ACT UP SLAMS THE ADAMS/TRUMP AGENDA

WHAT: ACT UP Press Conference + Reject Adams/Trump March

EVENT: https://www.facebook.com/share/19WkXhNWFF/

WHEN: Mon Dec 2. Press Conference at 11AM ET. March at 1PM ET.

WHERE: NYC AIDS Memorial (W12th St and Greenwich Ave)

WHO: ACT UP NY + Allies

November 29, 2024 – New York, NY — On Monday, December 2, AIDS activists from ACT UP NY (AIDS Coalition To Unleash Power) will protest Trump’s healthcare agenda and cabinet appointees at a press conference at the NYC AIDS Memorial which will be followed by a march to Trump T ower on 5th Ave for World AIDS Day.

At 1PM, ACT UP will lead a march from the NYC AIDS Memorial that they call, “The 5th Ave Tour de Adams: Map of Public Health Destruction,” stopping at key health and education landmarks that are in jeopardy due to defunding and overpolicing enacted by Eric Adams’ administration. Activists are demanding that he resign immediately for endangering the health of New Yorkers.

March stops include:

1. The NYC AIDS Memorial Park, Starting Location: 7th Ave and Greenwich, 1:00pm
   • In 2024, the Adams administration defunded the health department by $70 million: reducing hours and staffing for sexual health clinics that vaccinate New Yorkers for MPOX and other STD’s, closing COVID testing centers, eliminating key staff positions for the NYC Free Condom program, and limiting availability of PrEP counseling and medication abortion services to specific boroughs. In addition, Adams has threatened mask bans that endanger the health of HIV+ and immunocompromised New Yorkers.
2. The MTA Subway Station, Stop 2: L train at 14th street
   • Adams has increased policing of the subways which has been shown to endanger New Yorkers. Earlier this year, NYPD officers shot Derrell Mickles for jumping fare on the L train, as well as another officer and two bystanders on the platform.
3. Madison Square Park, Stop 3: 23rd Street and 5th Avenue
   • The Adams administration has defunded parks and park workers, leaving green spaces vulnerable to wildfires from climate change.
4. The CUNY Graduate Center, Stop 4: 35th Street and 5th Avenue
   • The NYPD received extra funding this year and is planning to build a Cop City under the Adams administration. Instead of protecting protesters earlier this year, the NYPD brutalized local college students for protesting the genocide in Palestine.
5. The New York Public Library, Stop 5: 42nd Street and 5th Avenue
   • Adams has refused to upgrade the NYPL despite steep inflation and even cut the free COVID rapid test program.
6. Condos and High-rises, Stop 6: Citywide
   • Adams’s new City of Yes proposal seeks to upzone nearly every neighborhood in NYC for condos during a housing crisis, instead of creating rent regulations that are based on New Yorkers’ wages, which have not risen to compensate for pandemic inflation. All of this happens while actual affordable housing communities like NYCHA are being handed over to private entities via the PACT program — eroding public housing as a whole.
7. Street Vendors & the Unhoused Population, Stop 7: Citywide
   • Adams’s anti-immigrant ballot proposal 2 in the most recent election used misleading language to pass a change to the city charter which allows the sanitation department to sweep street vendors and those living on the streets, which is a blatant attack on immigrants’ lives and livelihoods while New York is designated a Sanctuary City.
8. Rikers & Chinatown Jail, Stop 8: Arrest Risk Citywide
   • Adams has abandoned his pre-election promise to oppose the construction of the new jailscraper in Chinatown, cut classes and re-entry services at Rikers and blocked laws banning solitary confinement. Under the Adams administration, conditions at Rikers have become so deadly that a federal judge is considering taking power to control these facilities away from the administration’s control entirely.
9. Finally, Trump Tower, Ending Location: 57th Street and 5th Avenue at 2:30pm
   • President-Elect Donald Trump has promised to pardon Eric Adams for his alleged crimes. He has hired AIDS-denier Robert F . Kennedy Jr. to monitor the CDC and proponent of Medicare privatization Dr. Oz to oversee Medicare and Medicaid. He has threatened to cut gender- affirming care for minors and strip health insurance from tens of thousands of people via the destruction of the Affordable Care Act.

“NYC needs a real mayor who will end the HIV epidemic and protect the health of New Yorkers from concurrent pandemics such as MPOX and COVID as well as pandemics to come, especially during a Trump presidency when defending health services nationwide will be more difficult and important than ever,” said Nia Nottage of ACT UP NY.

ACT UP NY echoes councilmembers Tiffany Cabán and Chris Banks’s sentiments that Eric Adams must resign or be removed from office.

“New York City is a sanctuary city for healthcare services such as care and screening for HIV/AIDS and abortion. People across the nation rely on these services, not just New Yorkers, and take refuge in being able to travel to receive them no questions asked,” says Moe Molnar of ACT UP NY.

ACT UP demands that the mayor of New York City must defend public healthcare against the Trump regime. For now, the group calls for the unseating of Eric Adams due to his anticipated collusion with the Trump administration in dismantling the public health system for the purposes of privatization, policing and the promotion of warfare.

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About ACT UP

Founded in 1987, ACT UP (AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power), is a diverse, non-partisan group of individuals united in anger and committed to direct action to end the AIDS crisis. ACT UP currently meets every Monday night at 7PM ET via Zoom. Notes: you will be asked to contribute your first & last name and email address to access online meetings, and KN-95 masks are required for ACT UP NY in person meetings/actions/gatherings. All individuals are welcome!