Spanish anarchism and the healthcare debate in Spain : health, disease and medicine (1930-1939)

Abstract

This article analyses the view on health and disease of some Spanish physicians who propagated anarchism. They criticized the Government, capitalism and the Catholic Church viewing them as the ultimate causes of many diseases. This criticism was also extended towards traditional medicine, which was accused of perpetuating a view centred on the microbiological explanation of disease rather than on the social environment. The health debate became involved in a moral contest between anarchism and the other leading powers and ideologies. By means of the union struggle and the cultural diffusion of the libertarian press, the aim was to create a revolutionary consciousness for the defence of universal health from which all workers could benefit. Behind this strategy lay the idea that a true transformation of medicine and health would only be possible through the implantation of libertarian communism.