Capitalism Can’t Help Showing Its Ass These Days

I hadn’t been to an AIDS demonstration so far this year (my bad) but the prerecorded announcement from the ACT-UP phone tree last night haunted my sleep and got me out of bed and headed for midtown this morning. The demo here in NYC was part of an international week of actions (including Arizona, Thailand, France, Switzerland and more) targetting pharmaceutical giant Roche. The demand was simple: Roche must negotiate with the South Korean government to lower prices on bulk orders of lifesaving AIDS drug Fuzeon for its national healthcare system.

What got me going was hearing the quote from Urs Fluekiger, marketing director for Roche Korea, who explained the company’s refusal to budge on their $22,000 price tag for one patient/year of this vital medication:

We do not do business for saving lives but for making money. Saving lives is none of our business.

I thought to myself, okay, that tears it. It’s getting harder and harder to find anyone saying a kind word about good old freemarket capitalism, what with the mounting wreckage that is the global economy these days and the hurt that will be put on everyday working people here in the US and around the world in order to rescue the bloodsuckers who have benefited from this system.

There’s every reason we should make a point of kicking ‘em while they’re down.

So I did my little bit today, leafleting at a characteristically lively and imaginative action by ACT-UP’s New York and Philly locals and other AIDS groups. Scores of people grabbed fliers as they rushed to work in the skyscraper housing LifeBrands, Inc., the ad agency that Roche employs to promote Fuzeon.

There’s plenty more detail to deepen your rage at Roche--how they bought out the company that was given the rights to this drug by the government, which sponsored the original research, how their executives have shut down all AIDS and HIV research, how their profits last year exceeded 30%. But that one quote tells the story, about Roche and about the whole system they have made themselves such a success in.

We do not do business for saving lives but for making money. Saving lives is none of our business.

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Workers, Celebrate Comrade Valentine's Day With Farseeing Proletarian Optimism!

Fire on the Mountain is most pleased to see that the Freedom Road Socialist Organization / Organización Socialista del Camino para la Libertad has posted the Official Comrade Valentine's Day slogans for 2007. (This fine tradition has been augmented this year with some reflections on Loving In The Movement, by Claire Tran, a young FRSO/OSCL leader.)

Here, for those too lazy to click the link, are this year's slogans (but if you go to th' Road's web page you get to see the Official Comrade Valentine's Day logo, too).

Comrade Valentine's Day Slogans, 2007

Progressive And Revolutionary People Everywhere,

1. Resolutely Uphold The Militant Bolshevik Spirit And Revolutionary Romanticism Embodied In Comrade Valentine!

2. Decisively Smash Retrograde And Joyless Ultra-Left Lines Which Disparage Proletarian Love And Desire!!

3. Warmly Celebrate the 20th Anniversary Of ACT-UP, A Militant Organization Which Attacked The Bourgeois State And Big Capital On Behalf Of LGBTQ People And All AIDS-Affected Oppressed Communities Worldwide In 1987 And Has Remained On The Offensive For Two Decades!!!

UPDATE:

FRSO/OSCL has added a Spanish language translation of this.

A Los/Las Progresistas Y Pueblos Revolucionarios En Todo El Mundo,

1. ¡Mantengamos El Espíritu Militante Bolshevique Y Romanticismo Revolucionario Incorporado En Camarada Valentin@!

2. ¡Derrotar Las Lineas No-Felizes Ultra-Izquierda Y Atrasadas Que Desbaratan El Amor Proletario Y El Deseo!

3. ¡Celebremos El 20 Aniversario De ACT-UP, La Organización Que Atacó El Estado Burgues Y El Gran Capital Por Parte De Gente LGBTQ Y Todas Comunidades Oprimidas Del Mundo Afectadas Por El SIDA En 1987 Y Que Se Ha Quedado En La Ofensiva Por Dos Décadas!

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