Int J Health Serv
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Historical Article
Medical aid provided by American, Canadian and British Nationals to the Spanish Republic during the Civil War, 1936-1939.
During international or civil wars, private citizens of noncombatant nations often provide medical aid to one of the contending factions, particularly when they support a participant not favored by their own government. This paper details and analyzes the prominent campaign in the United States, Canada and Great Britain to provide medical aid to the Republicans during the Spanish Civil War (1936 to 1939). ⋯ Whether it be in Republican Spain, Vietnam or El Salvador, even a successful medical aid campaign to people in a military conflict may save some lives but may not affect substantially the course of the conflict. Those who are primarily interested in influencing political or military developments, hoping to advance the cause of a particular contending faction, may find tactics other than medical aid campaigns more useful in accomplishing their goals.
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This paper analyzes the implications of the rightward shift currently underway in the advanced capitalist world for the future of the welfare state. The Thatcher government in Britain is examined as a paradigm case of this new conservatism. The quantitative cuts in social spending as well as the quantitative shifts in social policy and ideological reversals of recent years are detailed, and the contradictions of both Thatcherism and its predecessor--social democratic reformism--are exposed from the perspective of Marxist political economy. A postscript attempts to explain the continuing popularity of Thatcherism in contemporary Britain despite the devastating effects of its policies.