UNITED IN ANGER: A HISTORY OF ACT UP STUDY GUIDE

UNIT 2: THE STRUCTURE OF ACT UP

Unit Summary
United in Anger offers insiders’ perspectives on the nuts and bolts of how activism works, from the ways ACT UP meetings were run and decisions made to the tensions that both sustained and threatened the group.  In this unit, we will examine the unique structure of ACT UP in order to understand the relationship between the group’s organization and its activism.  

The objectives of Unit 2 are:

  • To understand the structure of ACT UP and the benefits and challenges of that structure

  • To situate ACT UP historically among other social justice movements, other AIDS organizations, and the history of the Gay Liberation and Gay Rights movements

  • To engage with the complex diversity of the group, and to see how that diversity affected the group’s structure and activism

  • To reflect on the possibilities for using ACT UP as a model for other activist organizations

Making Connections: The ACT UP Statement
At the beginning of every Monday night ACT UP meeting, a facilitator read the following to the Floor:

ACT UP is a diverse, non-partisan group of individuals united in anger and committed to direct action to end the AIDS crisis.

Like a credo, this statement reflected the most basic tenets, goals and values of the activist group.  It continues to define the group’s identity to itself and to the world.

1.  What words stand out to you from ACT UP’s statement?
2.  Are there words or phrases you are not familiar with?
3.  What other words do you initially associate with ACT UP after reading this statement?
4.  How might you paraphrase the sentence so as to better understand it?
5.  What can you infer about ACT UP from the tone of this statement?
6.  What does it indicate about why and by whom ACT UP was started?

Key Terms
affinity group
Anti-war Movement
Black Power Movement
Civil Rights Movement
civil disobedience
die-in
direct action
the Floor
Gay Liberation
“general population”
intersectional identity
social justice movement
teach-in
Women’s Movement