Marxist perspectives on the spread of HIV

[Guest guest]

Greetings AIDS-India list members,

I am a doctoral candidtate in the School of Communication at Simon Fraser

University in Vancouver, Canada. I recently wrote a paper on a political

economy approach to HIV prevention and would like feedback from anyone here.

I have provided the abstract in the body of this e-mail.

Stay well,

Jagosh, Ph.D. candidate

School of Communication,

Simon Fraser University

Vancouver, British Columbia

E-mail: jjjagosh@...

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Title: HIV and a Political Economy of Risk Communication

Abstract: This paper explores how the construction, concealment, and

management of risk communication promote biotechnological advance and

industrialization. In particular, I discuss how risk is communicated in the

context of HIV prevention and HIV vaccine development. Traditional

approaches to HIV prevention suggest that a virus is the agent of disease,

lack of hygiene is the root cause of infection, and that behavior

modification is the solution to the problem. These approaches comply with

capitalist expansion but may not necessarily produce effective measures to

reduce rates of infection. Alternatively, I propose that capitalism is the

agent of disease, poverty and exploitation are the root causes of infection,

and the creation of anarchist and egalitarian political systems is the

solution to the problem. While international agencies such as the World Bank

are suggesting that HIV is posing a risk to ?development? and security in

many economically marginalized countries, the role of global capitalism in

the spread of HIV remains largely unchallenged. The paper concludes by

extending the concept of the social factory, laid out by Autonomous

Marxists, to understand why global rates of infection are continuing to rise

dramatically and how current systems of power are continuing to put people

at risk.

Jagosh, Ph.D. candidate

School of Communication,

Simon Fraser University

Vancouver, British Columbia

E-mail: jjjagosh@...

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[Guest guest]

Dear Dr-candidate Jagosh--

Interesting--and a topic that almost is illegal in the United States. My

god. Marxism?? The utter horror. That I've typed the word in an email may

well have Homeland Security breathing down my neck (if they aren't already).

Well...my problem first is the high-falutin' terminology obscures the simple

truths. You also set up a false dialectic I think. To wit: To say that it is a

polemic between behavior change and capitalism sets up a false dichotomy. The

two are not mutually exclusive.

First, the agent of AIDS must be explicitly identified and not rendered

into an amorphous political construct. That agent is HIV. And its

epidemiology is quite clear.

Thus, the " behavior change " that is MOST critical is addressing the

fundamentals of sexuality. Fucking without a condom, quite simply, is an

agent of transmission!! And indeed, capitalism seems to wish to drive

population expansion to create more drones cum consumers to sate its

ever-growing maw gobbling profits. (By contrast, population stabilization

is a concomitant of poverty reduction.)

Condoms prevent HIV. Condoms may also prevent excessive population growth.

So let's be clear--behavioral change INDEPENDENT of any political context

is the root of reducing transmission rates.

But where do the societal impediments arise that prevent even simple

interventions like needle access, condom use and other behavioral

transformations?

Here is where it gets interesting--and your tie-in to local political

constructs becomes relevant. In the United States, there is a hideous

movement toward abstinence only programs--some ridiculous amount of money

like $77 MILLION is to be wasted on this bullshit approach. No one argues

that abstinence is an effective method--but to rely SOLELY on such an

approach is enormous idiocy.

In India, it appears, there is a pernicious holdover of colonialist

nism that makes many Indians squeamish about discussing safer sex

strategies....and then there is the issue of access to latex condoms and

water-based lube. These are costly for many Indians and others in the South

Asian region.

The politics of sexuality, I would argue, is largely indifferent to the

local political system. Indeed, stigma and discrimination against people

with HIV, men who have sex with men, drug users and others arise in

political systems as diverse as the Chinese, American, European, Indian and

African systems of government.

By contrast there ARE direct ways that Capitalism--through the

interestingly " anti-market " intervention of patent and intellectual

property law--HAVE seriously impacted access to a variety of needs. Add to

that, the pernicious effects of " free trade " which basically means the US

and Europe get to rape the old colonies while blocking access to their

markets, and a variety of interventions that help people survive are

stymied, such as: Food, Water, Vitamins, Drugs, Healthcare infrastructure.

The current hypocrisy of the Bush administration's increasing focus on Iraq

is breathtaking coming from a country (the US) that has routinely:

a) Flouted UN and Geneva conventions;

Scrapped international treaties at whim;

c) Failed to provide promised funds for Afghanistan;

d) Will cost BILLIONS on a bloody, costly conflict just cause of one bad guy;

e) Accelerated the destruction of the environment;

f) Abetted the misdirection against the biggest corporate scandals in history

while the economy tanks;

G) failed to offer even the minimum GDP %age to the Global Fund;

h) persistently destroyed civil rights through its " Patriot Act " and sweeping

arrests of immigrants.

These elements weave together to assure the continued destruction of local

economies, the exacerbation of poverty and so forth.

But don't think for an INSTANT that you can lay this all simply and neatly

at the door of capitalism. Grisly human nature comes into play at every

turn--and that is what EACH of us must struggle with. From the

fundamentalist extremists that would ram their version of " god " down

everyone's throats, to the greed of local politicians, to the excesses of

fucking drunk without a condom, indifferent to the other, to the bizarre

notions (like fucking a virgin cures AIDS). These are individual acts that

we must be cognizant of--without necessarily going around with a shovel to

beat people with who don't comply--yet hold people responsible for their

misdeeds.

These are the elements of human nature that arise individually and manifest

in the collective politik, regardless of its form. Believe me, I am NO fan of

capitalism. The current excesses are a grisly reminder of its ability to funnel

more wealth to the richest while stealing food from the mouths of infants and

children; demanding top dollar for a drug, despite recognizing that this is an

economic form of genocide of breathtaking proportions, no less horrible or

cruel for the coldness of the act versus the passionate hatred of a Hitler or

Pol Pot or Stalin.

Rather, I would argue that the need is to continue to identify, at the

local level, each and every means we can use to stem the tide of the spread

of HIV, to treat and care for those with HIV, to end stigma and

discrimination of all kinds...each act of kindness and compassion that we

may generate in the face of the brutal cynicism and terror of the world may

act as the basis for building an edifice of humanity that can point the way

toward a nobler species. One that may survive its own excesses, rather than

immolate itself in the paroxysms of greed and hatred that seem to grip so many.

M.

E-mail: <gmc0@...>

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