When people think of those engaged in global health nowadays, the image that comes to mind is of a young, idealistic health professional who travels to a war-torn or impoverished setting – where patients and populations may be destitute or displaced, medical supplies limited, and health and safety conditions inadequate – in order to offer compassion and clinical skills to suffering people. These brave souls put their careers on hold for months or years, and in some cases potentially risk their lives, to provide the best possible care they can with minimal resources amid daily frustrations and often threatening political instability.

Lini De Vries, a widowed nurse and former factory worker from New Jersey, who, in January 1937, volunteered to be part of the American Medical Bureau's mission to Spain to defend democracy against the fascist onslaught by General Francisco Franco's army in the Spanish Civil War, on the surface seems to fit the bill described above. She was, however, a health leftist. By leftist we mean someone who adheres to some version of anticapitalist (including socialist, Communist, or possibly anarchist) belief, and who subscribes to the view that ‘people come before profits’. Leftists hold that it is possible for societies to build economic, social and political democracy premised on respect for collective human rights. Hence, by definition leftists oppose economic exploitation, oppression and discrimination at home and abroad, the latter particularly in relation to colonization, imperialism, racism, patriarchy and usurpation of Indigenous sovereignty and territory. It is also important to note that leftists are willing to expose publicly those who participate in, tolerate, or benefit from historical and contemporary exploitation and oppression.

It was as a health leftist that De Vries went to Spain, possessing a well-developed political sensibility, derived from her life experiences as a textile mill worker, a social worker and nurse, and as a member of the Communist Party. De Vries wanted to offer medical assistance not only for its own sake, but to support a political cause. Experiencing the enormous brutality of Franco's fascist forces first hand, she developed a clear sense of how health, politics and struggles for social justice were closely connected.