HIV-Positive als politische Akteure in Thailand: Vernetzung, Selbstorganisation und Wiederaneignung

Abstract

Abstract

People living with HIV and AIDS as political Actors in Thailand: Networks, Self-organisation and Reappropriation.

During the political turmoil of the year 2006 in Thailand, which culminated in a mass uprising against Prime Minister Thaksin, people living with HIV and AIDS (PLHA) played a crucial role during the formation of the anti-Thaksin movement. One central event was a militant protest against the free trade agreement between Thailand and the US in Chiangmai in January 2006, when the group TNP+ (Thai Network of People Living with HIV/AIDS) together with groups of farmers adopted protest forms from the anti-WTO demonstrations in Hongkong two months earlier. The article analyses the emergence of TNP+ as a political actor. From 1998 on, TNP+ was part of an international network consisting of NGOs, academics, lawyers and state agencies, who fought for access to generic anti-retroviral drugs and challenged the patent on Didanosine (ddI) held by the pharmaceutical company Bristol-Myers Squibb. Although the success of this campaign can be seen as a result of the working of an international network, where every group contributes with its specific expertise, it will be argued that the process of politicisation can not fully be explained by the involvement of TNP+ in this campaign. If we want to understand TNP+’s militancy and generalisation of political claims, we have to take into account specific forms of self-organisations and re-appropriation, which were developed by TNP+ during its struggle for access to medical treatment.