Moving Politics: Emotion and ACT UP's Fight against AIDS by Deborah B. Gould

Author:Deborah B. Gould
Language: eng
Format: mobi, pdf
Published: 2010-01-06T13:48:00+00:00

PART III

The Feelings of Decline

he last meeting of ACT UP/Chicago is seared in my brain. It was in January 1995, and there were fewer than ten people there. Most of us had been involved for many years, but there were also two men attending their first ACT UP meeting. ACT UP/Chicago had been declining for quite awhile by this point. We probably peaked in 199o but had been able to pull off a number of large and successful actions through 1992; during the next couple of years, even as a core group continued to meet, our numbers shrank and we held very few demonstrations.' ACT UP chapters around the country had a similar trajectory; nationwide, the directaction AIDS movement dwindled markedly after 1992. Not expecting that this January meeting would be our last, we started with a report from Ann Bata, our treasurer. We had a small amount of money in our bank account and a number of bills coming due. We owed Ann Sather's Restaurant rent for our meeting space. The group approved paying the bill, and after a brief discussion, decided to stop meeting at a public venue because we no longer could afford it, and with such small meetings, we could meet at someone's house. Ann then reported on the monthly charges for our post office box; she noted that we were receiving almost no relevant mail. We voted to close the P.O. box. Ann next reported on the monthly charges for our voice mail. We were receiving almost no phone messages, so we decided to cancel our voice mail account. Ann then reported on the monthly charges our bank was deducting from our account because our balance was below the minimum. Saving money was costing us money and no new money was coming in, so we decided to close out our bank account as well.

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