The No Kings movement has organized millions of people across the United States to take to the streets in protest of federal government overreach under President Donald Trump. The question is what comes next. Protest marches are only part of a grassroots movement for change. Personal forms of direct action are also needed, and the 1980s organization ACT UP New York is applying those methods once again to focus attention on the hidden levers of power that control access to health care.
Government failure breeds grassroots action
The AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power, or ACT UP, was formed in New York City in 1987 out of anger and desperation. AIDS (acquired immunodeficiency syndrome) was first observed in 1980, hitting New York City particularly hard. Previously healthy people suddenly fell ill and died of rare cancers and infections with no discernable cause. Over the following years, grassroots community groups formed in New York City to raise awareness, gather funds, and provide services to those affected.
But public health officials were slow to respond. AIDS was not named as a condition until 1982, and the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) was not identified as the cause until two years later. Then-U.S. President Ronald Reagan reinforced the moral stigma surrounding AIDS as a gay disease, undeserving of federal attention. He refused to acknowledge the AIDS crisis by name until 1985 when the cumulative death toll from AIDS had already surpassed 12,000 in the United States.
By 1987, New York City accounted for almost a third of all U.S. AIDS cases, registering thousands of deaths a year, a COVID-level crisis that still lacked an appropriate response. That year, ACT UP launched with a march on Wall Street to protest the high cost of AIDS treatment. At the time, the U.S. median individual income was around $18,000, but AZT, the only approved AIDS drug, cost $10,000 a year.
The group followed up with a series of personal actions, focusing on the role of financial institutions in blocking access to treatment. In 1988, an “ad hoc group” of more than a thousand ACT UP members occupied and shut down the Maryland headquarters of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to demand more investment in AIDS treatment research. A year later, just seven members created outsized attention by chaining themselves to the balcony of the New York Stock Exchange to protest the high price of AZT.
ACT UP takes on tech giants
Membership in ACT UP dwindled over the years as treatment and prevention improved, but HIV continues to circulate disproportionately among minority populations in the United States. In 2016, members of ACT UP joined with the organization Rise and Resist to protest Trump’s racist rhetoric and meetings with anti-LGBTQ hate groups during his first term. Now, the two groups are once again cooperating, this time targeting powerful leaders in the tech sector for their role in destroying federal healthcare resources.
At the start of last year, billionaire and high-profile Trump supporter Elon Musk was put in charge of the White House’s Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE. Staffed by young tech workers with no public policy experience, the newly established agency (named after a memecoin backed by Musk) set about eliminating what they called “wasteful” government spending.
As a result, the Trump administration canceled funding for almost 200 HIV studies and slashed $1.5 billion for AIDS-related programs administered by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Globally, it cut funding for the longstanding President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) and fully dismantled USAID.
In response, last week ACT UP marked its 39th year with a rally at the New York City AIDS Memorial in Greenwich Village under the theme: “Money for AIDS and Healthcare, Not for ICE and Warfare.” Even as it guts life-saving programs, the Trump administration has pledged $40 billion to convert warehouses across the U.S. into industrial detention centers for immigrants and is requesting another $200 billion for the war in Iran. The loss of USAID alone, which had an annual budget of $40 billion, is projected to cause more than 9 million deaths worldwide by 2030.
Hundreds of rally-goers marched in protest from the AIDS Memorial to the New York offices of Palantir, a data mining company owned by another Trump-supporting tech mogul, Peter Thiel. Among other U.S. government contracts, last year Palantir won a $30 million deal to develop an AI-enabled surveillance program for the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency.
Dozens of ACT UP demonstrators laid themselves on the busy street for a “die-in” in front of Palantir’s office to focus attention on the company’s connection to ICE atrocities, including the denial of health care to detainees.
“The Trump administration is spending more money on war than they are on health care. They’re spending more money on ICE than they are on AIDS care …We think those priorities are way out of line with American priorities,” said event organizer and ACT UP founding member Eric Sawyer, as cited by Gay City News.
“Speakers emphasized the continued need for in-person activism, even as HIV treatment has improved,” noted GCN reporter Dashiell Allen. “Organizers said the protest is part of an ongoing effort to influence voters ahead of upcoming elections and push for policies supporting health care and social programs.”
Health care is a top concern for Americans
Trump and his Republican allies are not listening to that message, and they probably never will. However, health care has already resonated among voters as Trump’s public approval continues its slide to historic lows. In a new Gallup poll, voters cited health care as their top concern, over the economy, crime, illegal immigration and other major issues.
Voters have also become sensitized to the disruptive influence of tech firms, including social media addiction and artificial intelligence. In particular, the AI boom — where both Musk and Thiel are stakeholders — has raised concerns over worker displacement and anxiety on the job. Data centers are also routinely blamed for pushing up the cost of electricity for ordinary ratepayers, and communities have begun organizing against new data center proposals.
The bloom has come off the tech rose in other ways, too. President Trump swept to victory in 2024 with the support of young men entranced by the online world of masculine aspiration, with Musk wielding his social media platform X (formerly Twitter) as a powerful megaphone while top podcaster Joe Rogan lent crucial online support through his mainly younger, male and Republican audience.
Now Rogan has publicly regretted his endorsement, and Musk has left the reputation of his Tesla brand in tatters.
The time is ripe for a new social movement that reclaims the normal workings of democratic governance for the benefit of ordinary people. No Kings has roused the numbers, and now direct action groups like ACT UP and Rise and Resist are adding a crucial example of personal action.
Image credits: Michael Fleshman/Flickr, MACMILLAN/Wikimedia Commons
