Wednesday 21st February – 7-9pm ACT UP and friends launch the ‘Fund Healthcare Not Warfare’ UK Coalition at Amnesty International UK Office, 25 New Inn Yard, London, EC2A 3EA – fully accessible
Come and celebrate the beauty of collective action and explore critical examples of tactical, strategic and ethical examples to disrupt the war-machine and protect our health services.
About the ‘Fund Healthcare Not Warfare’ Coalition
From New York to London to Berlin - queer, healthcare and anti-war activists are uniting. ‘Fund Healthcare Not Warfare’ is a new coalition of anti-war, Jewish Voice for Peace, Palestine solidarity activists and healthcare movements to demand a permanent ceasefire now and an end to the Israeli occupation, apartheid and settler colonialism.
Whilst our government's military budget drastically increases, services to healthcare continue to be precarious. This is in tandem with the relentless politicisation and assaults on trans and reproductive healthcare, the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, and the housing crisis.
Our governments must FUND HEALTHCARE, NOT WARFARE. Palestinians deserve to live with freedom and dignity. Everyone deserves access to healthcare.
"I never thought about HIV until I started to live with it. Now, after 7 years, the connections between my government's systemic divestment from essential care & investment in profiteering from warfare & death are laid all too bare. Palestinians deserve to live & thrive with dignity & care. And the entire world owes it to them to fight like hell until that reality is realized." Constantine Jones, ACT UP New York
Please join us to be inspired, informed and activated!
Why we need the ‘Fund Healthcare Not Warfare’ Coalition
FUND HEALTHCARE NOT WARFARE.
In 2020, after a decade of austerity and chronic underinvestment and understaffing, UK health services dealt with mounting pressure and constraints in delivering both pandemic and usual levels of care. Many lives needlessly lost due to political inaction and greed.
At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Government announced the largest sustained increase in UK military since the Cold War, more than £24bn over the following four years.
NOT WITH OUR TAXES.
The public health grant to local councils used to local health services including HIV and sexual health was reduced by 24% the equivalent of over £1bn between 2015/16 and 2020/21. The ongoing industrial action engulfing public services highlights how far wages in sectors like health and social care have continued to fail to keep pace with large increases in the cost of living.
Since 2021, Rishi Sunak has set out on a new ambition to increase defence spending to 2.5% of GDP in the longer term, higher than what NATO requires and has increased the UK’s nuclear weapons stockpile by 44%, ending three decades of phased reductions, without any explanation of how this would help improve security.
NOT IN OUR NAME.
We are witnessing Israel committing medical apartheid. Since 7 Oct, medical workers, ambulances, hospitals, and medical centres in Gaza have been repeatedly attacked. None of the 36 hospitals in Gaza are still functional and able to admit new patients. Medical supplies, fuel, and necessities such as food and water are made scarce intentionally.
Since 2015, the UK has licensed at least £474 million worth of military exports to Israel. The UK provides approximately 15% of the components in the F-35 stealth bomber aircraft currently being used in Gaza.
PERMANENT CEASEFIRE NOW.
With Israel continuing indiscriminate waves of deadly strike campaigns in Palestine, Syria and South Lebanon. We have a duty to uplift our voices to demand an end to war and the genocide of Palestinians.
The UK government must FUND HEALTHCARE, NOT WARFARE.
An end to the Israeli occupation, apartheid and settler colonialism. Palestinians deserve to live with freedom and dignity. Everyone deserves access to healthcare.
Let Gaza Live.
ACT UP, Fight Back, End AIDS.
"As a disabled Mum, nearly killed by an under-resourced. NHS, here in England, I cannot find the words to describe how I feel about the mass murder of innocent kids and their elders in Israel Palestine. Every letter I write seems inadequate, when we could be funding life saving medicine instead of Mass Murder. We must do all we can to stop it! Now!" Andria Mordaunt, ACT UP London, John Mordaunt Trust
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About ACT UP London
ACT UP London is a diverse, non-partisan group of individuals united in anger and committed to direct action to end the HIV pandemic, along with the broader inequalities and injustices that perpetuate it. Get involved at www.actuplondon.wordpress.com / @actup_london
Press enquiries
Full press release to be published at www.actuplondon.wordpress.com / all requests to actuplondonhealthcareforall@gmail.com