Farewell to David Legge, a PHM giant

David Legge was remarkable. I don’t say this lightly. What he brought to the People’s Health Movement (PHM) was beyond any expectations of one person. He was a founder and guiding light, and a comrade with a completely unwavering commitment to PHM. David served as Co-Chair of PHM’s Global Steering Council and was a crucial intellectual powerhouse behind the International People’s Health University (IPHU), WHO Watch, and Democratizing Global Health Governance programs. He was also a global champion for comprehensive primary health care.

IPHUs that changed people’s career and life trajectories

David masterminded around 20 in-person and online IPHUs. Through these, he inspired so many people around the globe to understand the political economic basis of health and illness. He showed students how the histories of colonialism and imperialism had a real impact on their lives today. Those of us involved in the program will never forget his amazing technicolour Excel sheet that set out the logic, philosophy and practicalities of the IPHUs. Unlike so many, he totally mastered information technology and used it to good effect. Many people have commented that, through IPHUs, he changed their career and life trajectory.

Another amazing achievement of David’s was establishing and leading the maintenance of the WHO Tracker, which is an essential part of PHM’s activities “watching” the World Health Organization (WHO). Each time the WHO Executive Board and the World Health Assembly met, in January and May respectively, David would be sitting in his office, backdropped by his amazing library in Melbourne – which so many of us know well from our Zooms with David – and work with a team of young PHM activists to critique WHO proposals. The policy analysis from the WHO Tracker is used by many WHO country delegates and civil society advocates, many of whom don’t necessarily realize that the site was run by volunteer labor – largely David’s labor –  showing untiring commitment, dedication and incisive analysis.

A key proponent of Australia’s community health movement

David was a coordinator of the PHM Trade and Health Thematic Group, and inspired many to dig deeper into why understanding these deep structural relationships is so vital to understanding the dynamics of global health equity.

He was also a fierce champion of the importance of comprehensive primary health care to health systems globally and in Australia. David was one of the key proponents of the community health movement in Australia since the early 1980s, and led research and practice to show the importance of community development to primary health care. In Australia, he provided vital support to the Aboriginal health movement through the Co-operative Research Centre in Aboriginal Health, the Lowitja Institute and many Aboriginal Community-Controlled Health Services, especially the Central Australian Aboriginal Congress in Alice Springs. Most recently he brought his insights to a project documenting the history of community health in Australia.

David had a profound impact on the thinking and activism of many. We first met in the mid-1980s and there followed 40 years of joint research, activism and friendship. David and I were thrilled when we were invited to join the International People’s Health Council, one of the founding networks of PHM, in 1992, and both knew we had found our health justice community. For so many PHM activists, David was a lodestar – he stuck firmly to the principles of justice and equity, and never wavered from using a Marxist analysis to understand the world and its health, social and ecological problems.

The struggle for health continues

He was completely untiring in his commitment to health justice, always bringing intellectual rigour and deep wisdom to whatever he was doing. David’s warm and encouraging presence was so vital in guiding us towards an analysis of our troubled world. Now he is no longer with us, it is as if the anchor has been pulled up, and PHM will be a little adrift without his steadfastness and solidity.

Once PHM activists knew that David was in the final stages of his life, tributes poured in. He changed peoples’ career directions towards public health and social justice. It was evident that quietly, warmly and determinedly, he informed, supported, and strengthened the efforts of countless activists and researchers across the globe. He brought a mix of huge enthusiasm, great intellect, a delight in people and life, fun, generosity and an extraordinary ability to engender action in others. Our movement has so much to thank David. We will never forget his warm and welcoming presence in this movement and the wisdom, commitment and intellectual rigour he brought. As so many have commented, the best way we can honour David is to continue the struggle for health.

David died on his own terms, and we owe his partner Jill Sanguinetti a great debt in allowing us to understand David’s choice, and enabling us to let him know how much his life’s work had been valued and what an amazing impact he had made. We were also able to tell him how much he was loved, which Jill reports was a great comfort to him. We offer our warmest and heartfelt condolences to Jill and David’s two children, Jacqui and Tim, on the loss of their remarkable partner and father, and thank them for the time David spent on PHM affairs.

So we farewell our brilliant, generous, warm-hearted friend and comrade, who we have been so fortunate to walk alongside. A luta continua, David, and your legacy will continue to inform and inspire us as we work towards Health for All and a better world for everyone, including the planet.

Fran Baum is an activist in the People’s Health Movement and health expert working on issues related to health equity and social and commercial determinants of health.

People’s Health Dispatch is a fortnightly bulletin published by the People’s Health Movement and Peoples Dispatch. For more articles and subscription to People’s Health Dispatch, click here.

Courtesy: Peoples Dispatch