South Africa: Twelve years of the TAC fight

JOHANNESBURG: A new book looks back on more than a decade of the life of South African lobby group, the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC), whose brand of activism came to define the world's fight for HIV treatment and care.

Fighting for our Lives: The history of the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC, October 2010) begins in the dark days of AIDS denialism, moves through the elation of court victories that belatedly ushered in treatment, before settling on the battles ahead - new campaigns that address corrective rape and xenophobia.

For those looking for the juicy back-stories of how treatment was won in South Africa, this is not the book. A better bet might be Debunking Delusions: The Inside Story of the Treatment Action Campaign (2010), by TAC treasurer, Nathan Geffen.

Fighting for Our Lives is a lighter read. The TAC's monumental "break-up" with the country's National Association of People Living with AIDS (NAPWA) after allegations of corruption in NAPWA is reduced to a paragraph; the court case that pitted TAC against the former health minister, Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, is a half-page. The book is a history painted with broad brushstrokes in some ways, but in some other important ways it is a reminder of the parts of the TAC's history that may have been forgotten since 1998.

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