Always on
This project successfully funded on 15th December 2025, you can still support them with a donation.
Remember the Dead to Fight for the Living 2025
London, Greater London, United Kingdom
Aim
This World AIDS Day, 1 December 2025, we did a die-in again — loud and proud - a living act of resistance against the AIDS crisis
This World AIDS Day, 1 December 2025, we did it again — louder, larger, prouder. See the Independent coverage'Protesters stage ‘die-in’ demonstration over HIV aid cuts.'
Thank you to everyone for your support for what might be one of the most memorable World AIDS Day vigil-protests ever this year in Trafalgar Square.
Thanks to to everyone who have supported this crowdfunder so far to help make it happen - the months of mobilising, emotional support, script writing, collecting of names, tombstone creation, venue booking, food to support all our organisers and attendees and so much more.
We have 10 days left on our crowdfunder to recoup as much money as possible so we can continue to organise in 2026 to keep remembering the dead to fight like hell for the living - until there is healthcare for all!
Photo credit: Holly Buckle
Help us to Remember the Dead. Fight for the Living this World AIDS Day - with ACT UP London — the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power London Chapter and friends.
About this crowdfunder
World AIDS Day - December 1st - is the international day where we remember the millions (44+ million to be precise) who have been murdered by pharmaceutical greed and government inaction that is the root cause of the ongoing AIDS pandemic.
Why a Die-In — and why now
A Die-In is a living act of resistance.
Activists lie in public space to represent the lives lost — and the lives still at risk — because of government neglect.
It’s visceral. It’s visible. It’s impossible to ignore.
Our last Die-In shook the streets — featured in PinkNews 'HIV activists stage powerful ‘die-in’ amid ‘united anger’ over Tory cuts', Dazed 'Why these protestors staged a mass die-in on World AIDS Day', and captured here in this video.
We thought “die-ins” were history — a protest tactic from our legendary elders who lay down in the streets in the 1980s and 1990s, forcing the world to confront the AIDS crisis.
We thought that era — when people died waiting for justice — was over.
We were wrong.
Why we’re fighting
We’re living under a weak-willed “Labour-tory” government that has gutted the HIV voluntary sector.
They’ve slashed foreign aid, diverting life-saving funds into military contracts — including £2 billion for Elbit Systems, Israel’s largest arms manufacturer.
Global cuts to HIV programmes are predicted to cause up to 3 million deaths.
Meanwhile, this same government chips away at the right to protest — the very tool that won life-saving drugs in the first place.
Read more on the BBC here - The British AIDS activists you might not know about
“It’s the same system decimating healthcare at home and arming genocide abroad. Our struggles are bound together — nobody’s free until everybody’s free.”Jack Wakely, ACT UP London
What your donation funds
We’re raising £1,000 to cover:
- Travel costs for activists
- Materials for over 100 tombstones
- Ethical, fair-trade ACT UP t-shirts for volunteers
- Professional photography and video editing to amplify the message
- Core organising costs to make this World AIDS Day unforgettable
Every pound helps us turn anger into action.
Every share spreads the word further.
Because we won antiretrovirals through people power — and together, we can win again.
Our Key Demands
1. Silence = Death / Reverse the HIV support cuts - Guarantee sustainable, multi-year funding for the HIV voluntary sector — stop the crisis and meet the UK’s 2030 HIV targets.
2. Protect the Right to Protest - Repeal authoritarian laws that criminalise peaceful resistance. Freedom of speech and protest are not optional — they are democratic rights.
3. Healthcare Not Warfare - End UK complicity in genocide, medical apartheid, and war profiteering. Sanction war criminals — don’t arm them.
“Find the human in yourself by finding the citizen in yourself — the activist, the hero in yourself.” Tony Kushner, Angels in America
With Love & Rage,
ACT UP London
“And I bellow: ACT UP! Fight back! Fight AIDS!” Stav Bee, ACT UP London
Any donation over £50 gets a free t-shirt!
“Health justice and liberation are one struggle. From London to Gaza — our solidarity is our strength.” Sarah Lasoye, Medact
About ACT UP London
We are grassroots, unpaid, volunteer activists united in anger and hope.We take direct action to end the AIDS crisis and the injustices that fuel it — from poverty and racism to transphobia and militarism.
'Igniting the Fire within me - All Aboard ACT UP' at QX Magazine
Join us. Fight with us.
🌐 actuplondon.wordpress.com
📸 Instagram: @actup_london
Funding method
Keep what you raise – this project will receive all pledges made