ACT UP AIDS Protesters Arrested At Occupy Wall Street

By VERENA DOBNIK 04/25/12 02:43 PM ET - AP

NEW YORK -- Longtime AIDS activists who have been chanting in the streets for a quarter century joined with supporters of the much newer Occupy Wall Street movement Wednesday in a rally and march through lower Manhattan to call for better health services.

New York Stock Exchange workers jeered from the sidewalk as handcuffed protesters wearing Robin Hood costumes were loaded into police vans after chaining themselves together and blocking traffic in the area around Wall Street. Police used chain cutters to remove them.

Protesters said they were marking the 25th anniversary of the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power – the organization known as ACT UP – which was founded in March 1987 when the group marched on Wall Street to protest the high cost and low availability of HIV medications.

Eric Sawyer, one of the founding members of the group, which has grown to include chapters worldwide, said Wednesday that 25 years later the organization returned to the financial district for good reason.

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