The Catalan economist and activist for peace and social justice Arcadi Oliveres has died at the age of 76 this Tuesday, from cancer of the pancreas. Oliveres had also been a professor of economics at the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB).
A tireless defender of human rights, Oliveres was for much of his life closely linked to the Christian association of humanist thought Justice and Peace, which he joined in 1981 and served as president for thirteen years (from 2001 to 2013).
On February 4th this year, the family of the esteemed activist announced that Oliveres was "gravely ill" and opened a website to enable messages of support to reach him. Oliveres subsequently expressed his gratitude to the people who had written to him in a statement on Catalan public television. "We know that everything has its difficulties, that getting out will not be easy, we know that my family, who love me very much, will continue to suffer, but we know that everything that could have been done will have been done. As for me, listen, I'm very content", he said on TV3, where he was visibly serene and relaxed.
Oliveres taking part in the Conference on Civil Disobedience held by Òmnium Cutural / Òmnium Cultural (Wikimedia)
Enjoying life
He recently told interviewer Albert Om on the radio station RAC 1 that he was savouring the last days of his life at home with family and friends. So while acknowledging that he was "afraid," Oliveres said he was "happier than ever" and emphasized that "few people have a chance to say goodbye to life as I do."
Despite being ill, Oliveres did not miss Catalonia's 14th February election date and admitted that he had voted for the CUP. "I won't see the Republic, but all of you will," he prophesied.
He also spoke once again of his indignation at the precariousness in which some people are forced to live. "What upsets me most is that we have a world in which people could live with dignity, but we are destroying it every day," said Oliveres.
He took the opportunity to send a message to all those people who wrote on the wall set up to receive messages of support: "Never lose hope."
Professional career
Oliveres leaves an important legacy both in the university and in the world of social activism. Graduating in economics in 1968, he spent the first ten years of his working life in a family business that had to close due to the 1970s oil crisis. This forced him to look for a new job and, as he himself recently acknowledged in an interview with the UAB magazine, he entered the university in response to an ad in the paper.
At first, in the early eighties, Oliveres worked as a professor at the Sabadell Business School, an independent entity that later became part of the Autonomous University. As a tenured professor in the Department of Applied Economics, he worked for 36 years in this faculty until he retired on August 31, 2016.
Central square in the Bellaterra Campus of the UAB, where Oliveres worked for 36 years / Antonio de Lorenzo (Wikipedia)
He took his struggle for a more just society into the University, to which he remained linked as honorary president of the Autonomous Foundation of Barcelona (FAS). "For me, the most joyful moment that the university gave me was when the UAB faculty declared José María Aznar persona non grata," he said in an interview published on the UAB website to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the FAS.
A life devoted to activism
Oliveres began his political activism at a very young age in the midst of the Franco regime, and was likely inspired by his primary and secondary school teachers at the Escola Pia in Barcelona, who included the priest, philosopher and non-violent activist Lluís Maria Xirinacs, as well as the priest and philosopher Octavi Fulla, awarded the Sant Jordi Cross in 1994.
In 1966 he joined the democratic student union SDEUB, with which he participated in the Caputxinada, the first large student protest in Catalonia against Francoism. The sit-in protest which took place from 11th to 12th March 1966 at the Caputxins convent in Sarrià, brought together more than 450 students, teachers and intellectuals in a constituent assembly that gave life to the SDEUB. However, the police laid siege and then stormed the convent.
His struggle brought him before a court: in 1968 Oliveres was tried and acquitted by Franco's Public Order Court (TOP) whose mission was to repress crimes considered to be political.
A world without violence in the media and education, a world without borders, and a world without social surveillance: key elements in Arcadi Oliveres's vision of peace.
In 1971 he founded the residents' association in the Eixample Esquerra neighbourhood, as well as joining the ranks of Christians for Socialism. Three years later he also became involved in the international Catholic organization Pax Christi. In addition, in 1977 he was part of the creation of the Catalan Association of Refugee Solidarity and Aid, of which he has been an active member all his life.
These are some of the many associations and entities in which this firm critic of the capitalist system participated, but the organization on which he focused for much of his life was Justice and Peace, which came into being in 1968. This entity "works to promote a more just society and a solid culture of human rights and peace from the perspective of the Gospel and Christian social thought", according to its website, adding that it also seeks to raise public awareness and influence the authorities.
In 1981, Oliveres began his involvement with this NGO, of which he was appointed vice president in 1986, and in 1999 became president, a position he held until 2014, while also leading the organization's federative Spanish body from 1999 to 2003.
Among the key struggles of this ONG is the demand that wealthy countries hand over 0.7% of their GDP to the poorest countries, the fight for tax protest against military spending, conscientious objection and disobedience, the cancellation of external debt, the fostering of peace, improving the lives of immigrants, as well as promoting ethical banking.
Interview with Arcadi Oliveres published in January 2021
The leap into the world of politics
Oliveres became a key voice during the 15-M movement, the radical left protest movement which began in 2011 by occupying town squares across the Spanish state. In 2013, Oliveres and the nun Teresa Forcades created the Catalan political movement Constituent Process. This aimed to promote a change in the political, social and economic model in Catalonia.
In April 2013, the Constituent Process manifesto was presented in Catalonia, whose decalogue of key points included: expropriating private banking, establishing living wages, pensions and housing, the implementation of a participatory democracy, as well as starting the path towards an ecological reconversion of the economy. He also advocated for a Catalonia outside NATO and without an army.
This movement was in the end integrated into Barcelona en Comú and later allied with other parties in the Catalunya Sí Que És Pot left-wing conglomerate. Oliveres was offered the candidacy for the presidency of Catalonia in the 2015 elections, but he declined.
Oliveres taking part in an En Comú Podem event for September 11th, 2016 / En Comú Podem
He has written widely on issues of peace and justice, and outstanding titles in Catalan and Spanish include Nord-sud, diagnòstic i perspectives (1989); El ciclo armamentista en España (2001); ¿Quién debe a quién? Deuda ecológica y deuda externa (2004); Aldea global, justicia parcial (2004); El meu camí cap a la utopia (2009) o Diguem prou! (2013).
Oliveres has also received numerous awards throughout his career, from the Lluís Companys Foundation Award (2001), the International Peace Prize awarded by the International Catalan Institute for Peace (2018), and the Barcelona City Council's Gold Medal for Civic Merit (2019).
On February 1st this year, his latest book was published: Paraules d'Arcadi (Angle Editorial), a perspective on our major crises, both global and local, coming up to date with the Covid pandemic, refugees, and the Catalan political prisoners. He told TV3: “People can do whatever they want with the book, but let the prologue be read”. In it, his ten- and eleven-year-old grandchildren explain their grandfather’s thinking and how he thinks the world should be.