After returning from Brussels as one of the 53 Student Stop AIDS campaigners this weekend at the MSF ‘EU Hands Off Our Medicines’ protest, I’ve been asked to write this blog about my experiences. In short I can say that it was hugely worthwhile and enjoyable, and hopefully a very productive event. After over two years with the campaign I’ve taken part in loads of exciting events, but this was better than the lot!

Students arrived from all over the country on Thursday evening , including myself and eight others from Nottingham University, at the Restless Development offices in London. We decorated banners, signs, giant pill pots and ourselves in preparation for the following day. Then all 53 super-excited Student Stop AIDers got onto the coach, and soon turned to sleepy Stop AIDers after (but not because of!) a briefing about the MSF campaign we would be supporting. Briefly, the ‘EU Hands Off Our Medicines’ campaign wants the European Union to remove provisions from their proposed Free-Trade Agreement with India that would harm access to essential medicines in the poorest countries.

Arriving in Brussels via coach and ferry on Friday morning, we were a little blurry-eyed but still full of beans as we were treated to breakfast by MSF and assigned our roles for the stunt. I was going to be a ‘patient’ with HIV, while others were ‘doctors’, and some would be dressed as European bureaucrats – complete with giant masks and big blue hands! I was particularly jealous of my friend Jake who had the (dis)honor of playing the role of Silvio Berlusconi.

The protest itself took place outside the EU-India Summit in the heart of bureaucratic Brussels, and we were excited to find that we would be joined in the stunt by fellow campaigners from Germany and France. The media stunt involved the ‘patients’, unable to access drugs from ‘doctors’ because of a wall built by the ‘bureaucrats’, acting as though we had died. Alongside the role-play we made as much noise as we could by blowing whistles and vuvuzelas, and the chant “Europe, hands off our medicines!” must have been heard loud and clear. Journalists and photographers from the press gathered around to report on our noisy protest. Prominent campaigners and doctors from MSF spoke about how important access to these affordable medicines has been to their work, and postcards from the field were delivered to the summit building.

After shouting our lungs out at the protest, we had some well deserved free time to enjoy some of the best bits of Brussels – the beer and chocolate of course! All in all, a fairly exhausting two days but a lot of fun and hopefully we will have made a difference to what is a critical campaign.

By Phil Fairclough
Nottingham Stop AIDS (steering committee rep for the Midlands)

To find out more about the campaign and take action click here.

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