The Politics of Health in the Lusophone Libertarian Movement: Portugal and Mozambique, 1910–1935

Significant advances in the study of the historic labor movement have entailed new work on the intersection between political parties, trade unions and subjects such as ‘race’, colonialism, sexuality, masculinity, and the reception of scientific ideas. The intersections between the labor movement and the politics of health, however, have been neglected to date both in labor studies and in social studies of health care and provision. This article builds on my on-going research into the dynamics of the Lusophone (Portuguese-speaking) labor movement in the form of anarchism and syndicalism and explores, specifically, the reception of ideas on health and the attainment of healthy working conditions and lifestyles as a central aim of these working-class movements. This study examines, among other aspects, the reception of ideas on nutrition, medical care, the provision of hospitals, the responsibility of medical professionals, sexual health, the consumption of alcohol and the provision of quality housing for workers within a framework that critiqued capitalism and the state and the relations they fostered.

A further dimension is incorporated into this study. This is the colonial dynamic at play between Portugal and its colonies, in this case Mozambique. What were the relations between the Portuguese syndicalist movement and the emerging trade union movement in Mozambique? To what degree did concerns in Portugal over issues of health find resonance in this African colony's labor movement? To what degree was the largely white labor movement in Mozambique attuned to local knowledge on health and racial issues surrounding health? What specific aspects of health and medicine were broached in the colony and how did these interact with an anticolonial critique and discourses and practices of ‘tropical medicine’?

This study, through a detailed analysis of a range of libertarian periodicals in Portugal and Mozambique during the movement’s period of maximum influence provides responses to these questions and makes a contribution to transnational research on labour movements through the interconnecting linguistic and class dynamics of the Lusophone world.