Anarchism and Health

Most arguments about healthcare begin by asking the State for something: better policy, cheaper drugs, rights that can be granted and just as easily withdrawn. Ryan Essex starts somewhere else, asking what it would mean to organise for health without hierarchy, bureaucracy or rulers at all. Anarchism, he argues, has always cared deeply about welfare and freedom, and has a good deal to say about how we look after one another.

The ground covered is wide and grounded in practice: the structure of healthcare systems, abortion, mutual aid during the COVID-19 pandemic, DIY medicine and refugee squats, all set against capitalism, racism, colonialism, transphobia and other interlocking forms of domination. Essex is as concerned with how to act now, in a deeply imperfect present, as with ideals. A bracing read for activists, health workers and anyone who suspects care could be organised very differently.