Portside

Acting Up Against Official Neglect

MAY 21 IS THE 35TH ANNIVERSARY of a sensational “Storm the NIH” protest by the  AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (Act Up), against the shortcomings of the U.S. National Institutes of Health’s effort to find an effective treatment for HIV/AIDS. One of Act Up’s main objections to the policies of NIH was the government’s inability to establish a cooperative relationship with the communities at highest risk.

On this day in 1990 about a thousand ACT UP members and supporters infiltrated the NIH campus in Bethesda, Maryland, where they staged multiple simultaneous protest actions – including the occupation of the NIH AIDS division director’s office – before the surprised police could regain control of the area, arresting scores of the activists on trespassing charges.  Some carried signs reading ''N.I.H.: Neglectful Institute of Death,'' while chanting, “N.I.H., you can't hide; we charge you with genocide.” https://www.the-scientist.com/demonstrating-discontent-may-21-1990-31227

Enough Talk, Do Something!

MAY 22 IS THE 45TH ANNIVERSARY of the first glimmer of hope for hundreds of upstate New Yorkers who had learned, almost two years earlier, they were living in the midst of an ongoing public health emergency.

The residents of the Love Canal neighborhood in Niagara Falls, N.Y., had been told by New York State’s Health Commissioner in August 1978 that they were “in great and imminent peril” from dangerous chemical contamination. The commissioner recommended that pregnant women and children under two should get out of Love Canal immediately. 

But even now, in May 1980, almost nothing had been done about it. The declaration of a health emergency did not provide funds to evacuate anyone, so only a handful of people could follow the commissioner’s advice.

For nearly two years the state and federal governments investigated the nature and impact of the contamination but did little to mitigate it. Then in February 1980 the federal Environmental Protection Agency announced that its tests had found four chemicals suspected of causing cancer in the Love Canal air. Seven weeks after that federal officials reported finding chromosome damage in 11 out of 36 Love Canal residents who had been tested. 

The discovery of chromosome damage was the last straw for the residents.  During a meeting with two federal officials, the residents refused to allow the officials to leave. A 5-hour standoff ensued, which only ended as a result of the intervention of the FBI, the U.S. Marshal service, and the Niagara Falls police. 

Within days, President Jimmy Carter used his authority to declare a federal emergency that would pay the cost of evacuating more than 700 residents. It would take decades for the neighborhood to be made safe for occupation, but the residents’ continuing exposures were brought to an end at last. https://chej.org/about-us/story/love-canal

Military Racism Takes a Hit, But for How Long?

MAY 23 IS THE 75TH ANNIVERSARY of the release of the report of the President's Committee on Equality of Treatment and Opportunity in the Armed Services entitled “Freedom to Serve: Equality of Treatment and Opportunity in the Armed Services.”

According to the report, racial segregation had been and was detrimental to the military's efficiency. The report’s findings put the contrary, racist, claims of the Secretaries of the Army, the Air Force, the Navy and other high civilian and military officials to rest for three quarters of a century. https://www.trumanlibrary.gov/library/freedom-to-serve

Speak Up, Memory!

MAY 24 IS THE FIRST DAY of the year-long commemoration of the 400th anniversary of the European settlement of New York City, on May 24, 1626. It could also be considered the 400th anniversary of the start of both the genocidal displacement of the area’s indigenous population and introduction of chattel slavery to the region. 

The city’s plan for the commemoration has almost nothing to say about the genocide or the brutal exploitation of enslaved labor that for two centuries helped lay the foundations of the city that exists today. One can only hope that the city’s residents will make up for the Panglossian oversight. https://www.nyc.gov/office-of-the-mayor/news/951-24/mayor-adams-founded-nyc-year-long-celebration-nyc-s-history-culture-

Protest and Serve

MAY 25 IS THE FIFTH ANNIVERSARY of the murder of George Floyd, who was asphyxiated in 2020 by a Minneapolis police officer. https://portside.org/2024-08-03/protest-and-serve

Who Needs the National Institute of Health, Anyway?

MAY 26 IS THE 95TH ANNIVERSARY of the establishment of the U.S. National Institute of Health. Historically, a very large portion of the NIH budget is devoted to funding medical research. One measure of the effectiveness of such funding is indicated by the fact that NIH-funded scientists have been the recipients of 42 percent of all the Nobel Prizes awarded for Chemistry and for Physiology and Medicine. https://jck.bio/inventing_the_nih/

Fifty Years of Making Peru Great Again

MAY 27 IS THE 50TH ANNIVERSARY of the establishment of Quechua – the indigenous language spoken by nearly 20 percent of Peru’s citizens – as one of the country’s official languages. https://portside.org/2024-08-09/day-worlds-indigenous-peoples

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