O movimento da reforma sanitária no Brasil e a participação de trabalhadores da saúde de Alagoas (1975 a 1986)

Abstract

This study focused on the Participation of Health Workers in Alagoas in the Health Reform Movement in Brazil. Its objectives are to describe the context of the development of the Health Reform Movement in Brazil in Alagoas and to analyze the participation of health workers from Alagoas in this movement. The theoretical and methodological approach is characterized as a qualitative study with a historical-social focus. The social scope was the State of Alagoas, with the initial timeframe being 1975, the year the National Program of Basic Health Services ended, and the final timeframe being 1986, the year of the VIII National Health Conference. It includes both direct and indirect historical sources. The direct sources consisted of written and oral documents, obtained through the method of oral history. The indirect sources were composed of existing literature on the subject. The findings were classified, contextualized, and analyzed under the aegis of the theory of the Italian philosopher Antonio Gramsci, using concepts of class, cultural hegemony, state, and culture. Fifteen oral documents were used, three of which were collected from the Research Laboratory on Nursing History. The analysis of the information revealed that the State utilized power relations and exercised cultural hegemony in the proposed geographical contexts; that the prevailing health system reflected this State as one of the governing and coercive apparatuses that enabled the functions of domination and exclusion of the people from health care; that the National Health Conferences were considered spaces of power and the active movements as counter-hegemonic; and that the participation of health workers was evident in their contribution to the re-democratization of Brazil and the democratization of health, through the participation of civil organizations and the Unified Movement of Health Workers, the role of organic intellectuals, and finally, the occupation of the space of power in the VIII National Health Conference. Therefore, as final considerations, the health movement in Alagoas was a driving force that aligned with the political and party ideology of the left-wing perspective, sharing agendas with all the social movements and struggles of the time, against the oppression of the State. The members of the movement were politicized and debated the socioeconomic and political issues of Brazil. It was also noted that some members in the health movement recognized its strengths and weaknesses, meaning there were those who confronted the issues directly, but there were also those who worked behind the scenes.