Educating young people to be entrepreneurs

Young people should also have a vocation for entrepreneurship. If we give them the tools, perhaps they will be encouraged to become entrepreneurs. The Escola i Empresa programme of the Fundació d’Empresaris de Catalunya (FemCAT) was created with this aim in mind. We talked to its president and CEO of Vertix, Elena Massot.

The training offered by FemCAT is no small feat. In the ten years of activity, up to 770 teachers and 300 top-level entrepreneurs have given courses in high schools, and more than 100,000 students have benefited from them. Massot explains that the Escola i Empresa programme was created in 2009 to achieve “a positive and encouraging impact”, which would help to understand the importance of business in the country’s social fabric. In addition, it seeks to recognise the work of entrepreneurship. “We want to show the need for business in society, awaken interest in this world among young people, give an inspiring vision of business and, finally, show some of the skills that an entrepreneur needs”, summarises the president.

To convey the relevance of business, first-hand experience is very important, isn’t it?

That’s right. That’s why the activity is actually a dialogue between the entrepreneur, who is usually in a management position, and the students who take part in it. The speaker explains the relevance of the company in the social fabric and, more importantly, describes his or her experience. This allows the students to reflect on the skills that are necessary to take over a business. The conversation and reflection on the motivations that lead someone to start a business, the narration of the day-to-day life, helps students to highlight aspects of the business from a different perspective. Schools can receive these talks free of charge, and the speakers are volunteers.

Thus, the entire organisation is the responsibility of FemCAT

Yes, throughout the territory, several entities take on the coordination and contact with the centres in their area. In order for the speakers to participate, the Catalan organisations from the business world propose volunteers who are willing to explain their experience.

And during the pandemic, how did you organise the training sessions?

From the outset, and even more so during the pandemic, it is clear that we have seen the importance of local management. That’s why we have tried to keep the activity at the centre, and we have brought in speakers from companies located in the area and close to these centres. For business or economic promotion organisations, this training is an opportunity to get closer to the students and the local business fabric. In the end, the programme also helps to bring the entrepreneur closer to the territory, so that he/she can better understand the environment he/she is working in.

What feedback do you receive, both from students and speakers?

In order to maintain the quality of the programme, we always ask for an evaluation of the sessions, both from the speakers and the teaching staff. Using the Net Promoter Score, the teachers have evaluated this training with a median score of 85.71 out of 100. As for the speakers, they find the experience very rewarding, and most of them recommend that business people they know take part in it, because they can have a dialogue with the students. For our tenth birthday, for example, we conducted a survey in 106 schools across Catalonia that had participated in the programme and around sixty entrepreneurs. The result was encouraging: 98% of teachers believe that the students’ opinion of the business world has changed after the session. They found the programme to be enriching, motivating, and a useful window into the real world. For their part, the students become aware of the entire business network through real cases narrated in first person.

Do you hope to return to pre-pandemic activity this academic year?

Until the 2018-2019 academic year, the programme reached almost 15,000 students each year, with around 400 sessions throughout the country. And we have 160 active entrepreneurs participating in them. And this academic year has started with a good volume of requests from schools, so we think that, after two academic years marked by Covid-19, we will be able to reach 15,000 students again.

Do you do training courses in universities or for start-up companies beyond secondary schools?

Yes, because bringing business closer to society is one of the pillars of FemCAT’s activity. In addition to the dialogue with students, we also have the programme Periodisme i Empresa, through which we bring Catalan SMEs closer to journalism students through visits and talks. At the same time, we have had an agreement with the Catalan Parliament since 2007, thanks to which we organise visits to business sectors for members of parliament. We also work with universities and research centres to facilitate knowledge transfer contacts. Many FemCAT members collaborate with mentoring programmes in social entities and start-ups. We do not consider any of these activities to be conventional training. Rather, we propose an exchange, because FemCAT’s main strength is that it brings together active entrepreneurs, who transmit the challenges and potentials of Catalan business through their experiences.

Finally, what is the current state of the Catalan business fabric?

In the last fifteen years, we have lived through two very tough crises, and the pandemic has been a significant shock to the sector. Right now, the recovery is very uneven. There are sectors that have quickly recovered and have made up for lost time, but in others, it almost seems that the activity before the pandemic will never return. The ups and downs and uncertainty are still expected to continue, and it will require the business world to maintain the flexibility and speed of response that we have been forced to practise in recent months.

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For some time now, history has brought us back to an old and still unresolved debate: what exactly is Spain? A difficult question that a handful of generations have had to face. Along the way there have been all sorts of debates, promises, triumphs, and defeats. And, in spite of everything, we are still far from finding an answer.

After Franco’s long night, Spain was faced with new challenges from 1975 onwards. The state had to strike a balance between the reform proposed by Franco’s government and the rupture demanded by the opposition. The agreed solution was to move together towards a new regime based on a new Magna Carta. The Spanish Constitution of 1978 was divided into ten titles and 169 articles. In the text, the term “nation” appears only twice, while the term “State” contains 90 entries.

The first and most important mention of “nation” is the one that opens the Preamble. “The Spanish nation, desiring to establish justice, liberty, and security and to promote the good of all its members, in the use of its sovereignty…,” the founding text begins, as if the nation itself were writing the text that will be read. Further on, this self-proclaimed “nation” expresses the will to “constitute itself as a social and democratic state governed by the rule of law,” which will deploy all its organs and functions.

The “nation,” the subject of dispute

The reference to “all its members” seems to refer to individuals. Indeed, Article 2 bases the Constitution on “the indissoluble unity of the Spanish nation, the common and indivisible homeland of all Spaniards,” which “recognises and guarantees the right to autonomy of the nationalities and regions that make it up and the solidarity between all of them.” It is precisely this article that is the subject of continuous litigation. 

This famous article 2, in reality, seems to be telling us that it is not the individuals who decide or want something, but the nation. For it is the nation that holds sovereignty, not the people. And the one who makes this proclamation of sovereignty is not the people either, but is personified in the figure of the King of Spain. Therefore, everything that makes up the nation is confusing.

The kingdom of “nationalities”

Certainly, the allusion to nationalities and regions points to the old idea of the territorial division of the kingdom. This word —“kingdom”— is nowhere mentioned in the Constitution. A strange thing, given that Spain is configured, in its form, as a kingdom. Kingdom of Spain, in the singular. But then, what are nationalities and what does the term hide to refer to these ethno-cultural organic entities?

It seems evident that it is a pious expedient to allude, without naming them, to the ancient kingdoms of Hispania, in addition to Castile, formed by: Catalonia, Valencia, Majorca, Aragon, Navarre, Galicia, the Basque Country, Andalusia (and Portugal). So what is the meaning and function of nationalities and regions? It is impossible to know, since these concepts do not appear again in the Constitution.

Everything revolves around the “reconquest”

Contrary to the discourse repeated like a mantra within the Francoist school system, learning about Spain was articulated around the concept of the “reconquest.” This is a historiographical term – still used in secondary school curricula in Castile – which describes the process of recovery of the feudal world over the Muslim and Jewish world, because it is understood that the Muslims were not the legitimate owners of the Hispanic geography…

This process began shortly after the arrival of the Arabs on the Iberian Peninsula in the 8th century and ended with the Catholic Monarchs in the 15th century, who would end up unifying “Spain” as an integral state. This reconquest would end up forging “the Spanish spirit.” In other words, historical arguments to justify the National Catholicism imposed after the Civil War. 

Even so, it does not seem that there has ever existed ‘de facto’ a “Spanish nation,” that is, integrating nationalities and regions, as the current Constitution would have us believe. It is not even certain that it has ever been consolidated as a nation-state, in the modern sense. We see it below!

From confederation to absolutism

The dynastic state, initiated by the Catholic Monarchs, as we have stated, ended up becoming an absolutist state. Before becoming an absolutist state, it had to restrict the power of the nobility, force adherence to the Catholic religion and unite all power in a loyal devotion to the King. Contrary to what some think, the language remained outside this power scheme. Therefore, it was never a unifying element until the beginning of the 18th century, although Francoism tried to falsify history once again.

Power was organised around five Councils of State: Castile, Aragon, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal (1580-1640) and the West Indies. Therefore, the different territories that made up the geography of the Corona de Hispaniae —plural of Hispania— maintained their own administration, currency, and laws. In this sense, it was a kind of confederation of nationalities, which retained their own peculiarities, charters, and traditions.

The predominance of Castile (which included Galicia, Asturias, and León) over the other existing kingdoms of the Iberian Peninsula became increasingly evident, in terms of extension and population and, above all, after incorporating the West Indies into the Castilian kingdom, which did so by way of “discovery,” with all that this entailed. Thus, the progressive transfer of the economy from the Mediterranean to the Atlantic brought about a paradigm shift in relations between the different territories that made up the Hispanic Crown.

This plurality, which was not without its ups and downs, gradually led to a greater centralisation of power. But the definitive leap came after the War of Succession and the subsequent enthronement of the Bourbon dynasty on the Castilian throne. Between 1707 and 1716, the new King Felipe V promulgated the well-known Nueva Planta Decrees throughout the different territories of the Crown of Aragon as punishment for their rebellion and as a right of conquest. However, this loss of autonomy never affected Navarre or the Basque Provinces, since these territories had been loyal to the Bourbon cause. 

It was then that Castile was transformed into Bourbon Spain: an absolute and highly centralised monarchy. As proof of this process, Felipe V wrote in 1717: “I have judged it convenient […] to reduce all my Kingdoms of Spain to the uniformity of the same laws, customs, habits, customs and courts, all governed equally by the laws of Castile.” Thus, as a result of repression and by right of conquest, a forcibly Castilianised Spain began to take shape as a modern (French-imported) national (Castilian-exported) state. Naturally, the illusion was short-lived.

The failed illusion of the “federative republic”

The enlightened writer José Marchena (1769-1821), exiled in Bayonne to escape the Inquisition, wrote a revealing report in 1792 for Jacques Pierre Brissot, a Girondin and foreign minister of the French Republic, on the difficulties of implementing in Spain a constitution similar to the French one of 1791. His words are quite revealing: “France has now adopted a constitution which makes of this vast nation a united and indivisible republic. But in Spain, the various provinces of which have very different customs and usages, and to which Portugal must be united, it should only be possible to form a federative republic.”

In a similar vein, in 1808, in Cadiz, the famous politician from Girona, Antonio de Campmany wrote, just after the French War had begun, in the famous publication ‘El Sentinella’: “…. In France, then, there are no provinces or nations; no Provence or Provençals; no Normandy or Normans. They have all been wiped off the map of their territories and even their names […]. They are all called French.” And he goes on to say: “So what would become of the Spanish if there had not been Aragonese, Valencians, Murcians, Andalusians, Asturians, Galicians, Extremadurians, Catalans, Castilians? Each of these names inflames the pride of these small nations, which make up the great nation.”

Decade after decade, of the nine Spanish constitutions drafted during the contemporary age (1812-1978), all have in common —with minor nuances— the same affirmation: they are a constitution of the monarchy and of Catholic confession, the religion of the King and of the nation. Therefore, the unity of the nation is the unity of the monarchy.

Does it exist, then, a nation of nations?

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Catalonia is a country with a strong advertising tradition. Barcelona has been the birthplace of internationally renowned advertising agencies, which have been recognised for their creativity. Catalan advertising began more than 150 years ago. At 11Onze we take a look back at the best moments in our history.

The first advertising company in Spain was founded in Catalonia by Rafael Roldós (1846-1918). His family was linked to the world of printing and he began his professional career as an advertising broker for the ‘Diari de Barcelona’ and soon founded Roldós y Compañía in 1872. The exhibition ‘Publicitat a Catalunya 1857-1957. Roldós i els pioners’, which was shown at the Palau Robert, brings together all this legacy.

Today, Roldós S.A. is one of the oldest advertising companies in the world and for more than 100 years it was the example to be followed by the rest of the Catalan advertising agencies. The experience of Roldós was joined by other advertising agencies, such as those of Pere Prat Gaballí, Rafael Bori, Joan Aubeyzon, José Gardó and Malcolm Thomson, who helped to consolidate a profession that mediates between advertisers and the media. At first, of course, advertisements had almost no illustrations and the texts were straightforward. “Hair wash”, “Bargain, really”, “Public notice”, “Great range” were the common slogans to catch the readers’ attention.

The rise of poster art

However, illustrations were gradually gaining ground. Catalonia was also the first place in Spain where the modern poster appeared. Industrialisation and the bourgeoisie were the main driving forces behind Modernisme, a highly charged and precious style, which also incorporated advertising, always in the latest fashion. Especially as a result of the Universal Exhibition of 1888, poster design spread throughout the country, where competitions were even organised. The book that best captures this history is undoubtedly the work directed by Carolina Serra, ‘Història de la publicitat de Catalunya’ (History of Advertising in Catalonia), which highlights the importance of this sector.

Thus, the first modernist poster is by Alexandre de Riquer for a photography brand in 1895. Others by Llorenç Brunet, Modest de Casademunt, Ramon Casas, Joan Llaverías and Francisco de Cidón will soon follow. Possibly the most recognised poster of the period is ‘4 gats. Pere Romeu’ by Casas, in which we see Romeu at the bar of the famous Barcelona restaurant Els Quatre Gats looking directly at the reader. But there are others, such as those for Anís del Mono or Codorniu.

War and repression: the emergence of new formats

With the spread of radio at the end of the 1920s, new advertising formats appeared that changed the whole face of advertising. Advertising was incorporated into the world of education and professionals began to organise themselves into associations. Poster design, moreover, took on a rationalist aesthetic and, especially during the Civil War, political messages and proclamations triumphed. The work of the Propaganda Commissariat of the Republican Generalitat to fight fascism, headed by Jaume Miravitlles, was particularly noteworthy at this time. From this period are the well-known poster-photographs by Pere Català i Pic and the transmedia campaign “El més petit de tots”.

After the Civil War, international isolation and repression led to the complete disappearance of Catalan in advertising. And it was not until the early 1950s that Catalan society once again showed an interest in consumerism. Advertisements such as Potax and Cerebrino Mandri date from this period. But 1956 was the year that marked a before and after, because it was when Televisión Española began its first broadcasts and new advertising agencies appeared that changed advertising formats forever.

The Olympic Games and the rise of the audiovisual industry

It was during the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s that advertising production, art and film were perfected. New ideas were explored, created, innovated and, finally, sold. It must be understood that, at that time, advertising teams had not studied any university degree: they built the profession as they practised it. This is how multidisciplinary teams were formed, with filmmakers, graphic designers, photographers, art directors, producers and commercials.

From the simple messages of the 1960s, such as “OMO lava más blanco”, to filming would take only a few decades. With the advertising boom in the United States and the United Kingdom, the psychedelic photographs and montages of Leopoldo Pomés triumphed. Possibly the most famous was for Terry cognac with the slogan “Terry me va”. Other notable names include Jaime de la Peña and Pepe Fons of Group Films. Peña won the Golden Lion at the Cannes International Advertising Film Festival for the 1979 advert “I Feel Lois”. The Moro brothers, who spread the use of the jingle, also made a name for themselves at that time. Theirs are the “Está como nunca” from Fundador (1960) or the Gallina Blanca advert from the same year, where a hen does a striptease for the camera.

But it was from the 1980s onwards that everything took on a new dimension, culminating in a new image for Catalonia and Barcelona with the 1992 Olympic Games and the production of the Olympic film by the production companies Ovideo, Group Films and Lolafilms. At that time, the underground art of fanzines and cultural magazines had a major influence through illustrators such as Mariscal and Nazario. Group Films was joined by other agencies such as MMLB, RCP and Bassat & Asociados, and Barcelona became the advertising factory for Spain. Nenuco, Cruz Roja, Byly, Trex… By the 1990s, special effects and digital animation were incorporated, and continue to this day.

Advertising is part of our collective memory. That’s why we still remember the song of the language campaign “Parla sense vergonya”, the song “Envàs, on vas?” or the sense of peace of the Audi advert with the slogan “¿Te gusta conducir?”. We have even organised neighbourhood raids to get this year’s La Mercè poster or that of illustrator Paula Bonet. And every summer we eagerly await Estrella Damm’s “Mediterràniament” advert; and every Christmas, the La Grossa and Campofrío ads. Advertising, whether we like it or not, explains us and makes us.

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The date of 1714 lingers vividly in our memory. Little or much, everyone would know how to explain what it meant to Catalonia. Even so, this dark period in history began to change with the Royal Decree on free trade with America. This regulatory text would be the crack that would lead to industrialisation in our country. We find out about it from agent Oriol Garcia Farré.

After the war of 1714, Catalonia had been banned from direct trade with the American colonies, which meant a brutal impoverishment. From the 1750s onwards, this began to change. The system of privileges of Bourbon trade policy was failing, and the powers that were being forced to introduce new agents to guarantee the viability of trade with America.

Thus, in 1756 the Crown once again allowed ships to leave Catalan ports for the new continent, and in 1778 Carlos III signed the Royal Decree on free trade, putting an end to the monopoly of Cadiz and Seville and once again favouring trade from Catalonia. This marked the beginning of a significant export of agricultural products, such as wine, eau-de-vie, nuts and paper, which allowed Catalonia’s balance of trade to increase spectacularly. This was the true genesis of Catalonia’s industrialisation.

Merchants and Indianos, a chronicle of entrepreneurship

Merchants were the necessary driving force behind the modernisation of the country. The trading companies of the 18th century were the model to be followed for more than a century in organising exports and imports. The cotton trade with the colonies was extremely important for Catalonia to begin a process of mechanisation, which led to the beginning of the industrial revolution.

A few years later, a generation of entrepreneurs would shake up and transform the economic and social structures of Catalonia. The first to do so were Josep Bonaplata, Joan Vilaregut and Joan Rull, all three linked to textile manufacturing. In 1832 they created the first steam-powered textile industry in Spain, the Bonaplata Factory.

The idea was a turning point, the definitive step towards modernity. The technological innovation brought about by mechanisation enabled them to become leaders in their sector and to boost the entire textile industry in Catalonia. The restlessness, transformation and improvement that characterised that era are still in the DNA of Catalan commerce.

Steam, the key to the country’s industrialisation

The economy created by the use of steam made it necessary to move at greater speed. Technological innovation and entrepreneurial spirit had to be accompanied by a new transport system. It was the railway that brought the country’s main textile production centres to the port of Barcelona, thus providing the backbone of the whole territory.

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A 11Onze ens hem engrescat i hem recopilat alguns dels llibres que s’han escrit en català sobre l’avarícia. Com s’ha construït aquesta mala fama que diu que els catalans tenim un desig excessiu d’adquirir riqueses per guardar-les?

A través de tots aquests personatges avars, patètics, miserables i egòlatres, els escriptors catalans han retratat, no només la gasiveria de la burgesia catalana i la mesquinesa del ‘lumpen’ que malda per sobreviure, sinó la societat del seu temps en el seu conjunt, tan patològicament malalta com tots aquells que l’habiten. 

• ‘L’escanyapobres’ (1884), de Narcís Oller. L’escriptor Narcís Oller (1846-1930) ha deixat a la literatura catalana algunes obres mestres. A ‘L’escanyapobres’, que sovint és lectura obligatòria de batxillerat, abandona el romanticisme i se submergeix de ple en el realisme i el naturalisme. La novel·la narra les desventures de l’Oleguer, l’avar que viu a la masia de la Coma i que, per culpa del seu caràcter esquerp, es baralla amb tots els pagesos de la contrada. Oleguer sempre mostra dues cares: de cara enfora, l’home treballador que manté la masia; però, de cara endins, l’home obsessionat amb els diners que humilia els seus subalterns. A banda de ‘L’escanyapobres’, és obligatori esmentar ‘La febre d’or’ (1890-1892), perquè és la gran novel·la de la Barcelona del segle XIX, on la burgesia creix sense aturador gràcies a una especulació malsana. L’obra és un retrat d’un moment crucial de la història de Catalunya.
• ‘Terra Baixa’ (1897), d’Àngel Guimerà. A Catalunya, sobretot durant les primeres dècades del segle XX, hem estat molt dels drames rurals i l’obra teatral d’Àngel Guimerà (1845-1924) és possiblement la que millor ho exemplifica. ‘Terra baixa’ mostra de forma descarnada el conflicte entre les imaginàries terra alta i terra baixa. A partir d’una història d’amor possessiva, el drama tracta les misèries de la vida al camp, les penúries de les llars catalanes de l’època i l’estructura jeràrquica de les societats rurals.
• ‘Drames rurals’ (1904), de Víctor Català. També narra els drames rurals de la Catalunya de principis de segle XX la nostra Víctor Català (1869-1966), el pseudònim amb què va publicar Caterina Albert. Club Editor recopila en tres volums els contes d’aquesta gran autora catalana, que representa amb una sensibilitat sense precedents la cara més fosca de la vida rural, i que sovint s’acarnissa amb les dones.
• ‘La Xava’ (1905), de Juli Vallmitjana. Rescatat de l’oblit no fa massa, l’escriptor Juli Vallmitjana (1873-1937) va retratar els ambients més pobres de la Barcelona de principis del segle XX. A ‘La Xava’, com també fa a ‘La ciutat vella’, mostra la parla del carrer als barris de sota de Montjuïc, la lluita descarnada per sobreviure i com els senyorets de Barcelona, avars i narcisistes, feien servir la pobresa més negra per construir la seva bohèmia d’or. Les seves obres, plenes d’històries petites, narren també els grans esdeveniments col·lectius de l’època, i el combat de les classes proletàries i la burgesia.
• ‘L’auca del senyor Esteve’ (1907), de Santiago Rusiñol. L’obra de Rusiñol (1861-1931), també de principis del segle XX, narra la confrontació i la reconciliació entre el senyor Esteve, un comerciant arquetípic de la petita burgesia, i el seu fill, un artista modernista que no vol heretar el negoci familiar. L’obra va resseguint la vida del protagonista, un home prudent i pràctic, que ja de petit vol dedicar-se exclusivament a la seva botiga de vetes i fils, La Puntual, i que es casa amb Tomaseta, una dona del mateix tarannà. De fons, s’hi endevina Barcelona com una ciutat en procés de modernització.
• ‘Vida Privada’ (1932), de Josep Maria de Sagarra. Després d’anys de prosperitat de la burgesia catalana a costa de l’explotació dels més pobres, qui narra com ningú la seva decadència és Sagarra (1894-1961). Ho fa a través de la història familiar dels Lloberola, que veu com s’esvaiex tot el seu patrimoni en mans dels més joves de la casa. Sagarra retrata amb ironia el procés de degradació social i moral de la família i fa un retrat de l’alta i la baixa societat, a través de les reunions en salons, sales de juntes i bordells. De Sagarra també cal esmentar altres obres seves, com ‘La rambla de les floristes’ (1935), ‘El cafè de la Marina’ (1933) o ‘L’hostal de la Glòria’ (1931), perquè fan un retrat calidoscòpic dels avars i els miserables que poblen la història de Catalunya del segle XX.
• ‘El carrer de les Camèlies’ (1966), de Mercè Rodoreda. Qui retrata els anys de la Guerra Civil i la postguerra és Rodorera (1908-1983) a ‘El carrer de les Camèlies’. La novel·la ressegueix la vida de Cecília, una supervivent, que comença la seva vida miserable a La Rambla. Després, viu engabiada en un pis de l’Eixample i acaba venent-se en unes barraques del Carmel. Rodoreda retrata una societat consumida per l’avarícia dels anys anteriors, un viatge a la fosca. Aquesta tristor grisa serà una constant en les obres de Rodoreda, com ara a ‘Aloma’ (1936) o a la famosa ‘La plaça del diamant’ (1962). També retrà comptes amb el passat a la novel·la ‘Mirall trencat’ (1974), un retrat de la decadència burgesa a l’estil de Sagarra. 
• ‘Feliçment soc una dona’ (1969), de Maria Aurèlia de Capmany. Com ho fa Rodoreda a ‘El carrer de les Camèlies’, Capmany (1918-1991) retrata la societat del seu temps a través del personatge de la Carola, que ha viscut intensament i ha estat víctima dels clarobscurs d’una ciutat avara que creix de manera desordenada. La protagonista enceta, al principi, un viatge a la recerca de la felicitat, però agafa el camí equivocat que li farà perdre tota la innocència. Capmany també retrata aquesta ciutat vençuda pels anys avars a ‘Betúlia’ (1974).
• ‘Benzina’ (1983), de Quim Monzó. L’efervescència avariciosa dels feliços anys vuitanta del segle XX la retrata Monzó a través de la història de l’Heribert. El personatge, que ha triomfat al món de l’art després d’una conquesta àrdua, viu una vida condescendent i avorrida fins que s’adona que els seus amors l’enganyen amb homes extravagants.
• ‘El cau del conill’ (2011), de Cristian Segura. Ja al segle XXI, Segura retrata la plàcida existència de l’empresari Amadeu Conill: les partides de tenis al migdia, les demostracions de popularitat a la tribuna del Barça, els vermuts al Turó Park o les tardes de compres a l’Illa Diagonal. ‘El cau del conill’ relata les tribulacions d’un prohom de la burgesia barcelonina en caiguda lliure i el relleu generacional d’una classe social en una decadència feliçment aconseguida en ple món globalitzat.
• ‘Tsunami’ (2020), d’Albert Pijuan. Finalment, hi trobem els tres cosins de Pijuan, fills dels tres germans fundadors d’un grup turístic amb hotels arreu del món. Als divuit anys, gaudeixen com mai i com ningú durant la inauguració del nou hotel a Sri Lanka: festes, alcohol, submarinisme, paisatges exòtics, luxe asiàtic… Però les coses canviaran dràsticament quan una alerta de tsunami s’escampa per tots els racons de l’oceà Índic.

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They say that you are not so much what you say as what you do, and in this sense the Catalans do many things, and the most important thing is that they do them together. There are 74,438 associations in Catalonia, according to data from the Department of Justice in 2020. A figure that serves to understand the magnitude of this network in the social sphere. Self-organisation marks and defines Catalan society

As a concept, associationism refers to the voluntary organisation of people seeking a common interest, be it cultural, political, sporting, social assistance, leisure or any other field. The essential point is that this activity is done on a non-profit basis and for the benefit of society.

From clandestinity to the creation of a social fabric

Historically, the term associationism was born in the 19th century as a result of the theories of utopian socialism and although guilds and brotherhoods were already created in medieval times with the intention of defending common interests, it was not until the era of the Industrial Revolution that associations as such proliferated. The purpose has always been the same: to look after the needs of society. As the economic and business system moved towards incipient capitalism, the emergence of organised labour became necessary.

Throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, Catalan society created associations in different spheres, such as athenaeums, schools, cooperatives and trade unions. The emergence of many of these entities corresponded to the lack of these basic services, such as schooling, health or the defence of workers’ labour interests. In areas where there was no social protection, it was society itself that sought mechanisms to protect itself. It was also in these decades that the movement for the recovery of national consciousness emerged in an attempt to reclaim Catalonia’s own personality and fight for its preservation. A milestone that was blurred in the Franco era, when all Catalan national institutions and the network of associations were persecuted and repressed. In this context, the right of association was practically disqualified, but Catalan associations survived underground.

Associationism as a reflection of the Catalan people

The values of associationism mark the path towards a more committed and less individualistic society. In fact, if we analyse some basic elements of Catalan culture, we can see that this idea is in tune with the cultural reality. Pilgrimages, sardanes, local festivals, Sant Jordi? All involve getting together, organising, living together and sharing. It is no coincidence, therefore, that most Catalans spend part of their free time in associative or social activities with the aim of improving the quality of life of the country as a whole.

Variety is the spice of life, and when it comes to organisations, there is something for everyone. Any Catalan can nowadays find an association that is of interest to him or her, and where he or she can contribute his or her grain of sand. Sporting, historical, food-related, scientific, academic and social welfare concerns? Everything has a place in the Catalan associative fabric because everyone has a place in the associative fabric.

Beyond the reach of public bodies, this network of unstoppable people can actively and significantly contribute to creating opportunities and ensuring the benefit of all groups; no one can be left behind from a social point of view. In particular, associations have done and continue to do essential work focused on excluded groups, social emergencies, people with fewer resources, those affected by banking or systemic abuses, minority illnesses, support groups, and a long etcetera. Entities that have had to organise themselves internally and, in many cases, without public support, to meet the basic needs of citizens, both physical and psychological, in order to improve their quality of life.

A task that has never received the support it deserves and which, in many cases, is financed through donations and aid from citizens. Fortunately, social awareness is becoming more and more important and cooperation goes beyond the association itself to open up to all citizens in a circumstance in which the support of each one of the collaborators is essential. This shows that the associative fabric has a double aspect: active participation from within or collaboration from outside, so that the whole of society becomes part of it.

Culture, a basic pillar of development

In Catalonia, the culture of an entire people has been maintained over the years in the face of all kinds of social and political situations, thanks in large part to the associations and their work to preserve and strengthen the cultural fabric. To give us an idea of the importance of this, of the 74,438 associations mentioned above, 34,261 are of a cultural nature. The result is that Catalan society is committed to culture, and thus to knowledge, freedom of expression and the promotion of critical thinking.

Culture plays a key role in the development of a territory and becomes an essential part of citizens’ lives. Beyond books, series or museums, culture is also the language, the way we relate to others and to the environment, the customs that make us live in a certain way, celebrating specific dates or giving value to a feeling of belonging to a territory. Social solidarity and cooperation are two values that are also highly influenced by culture and which, in turn, can have a great influence on the social functioning of a people. Culture is practically everything, and associations take on the role of preserving this identity value through organisations and activities that promote its preservation.

Social cooperation, a commitment to value

Associations understand the creation of a community on the basis of inclusion and with the aim of strengthening these links so that working together allows society to advance more and to advance better. In no case, however, should this union of people work on the basis of exclusion towards all those who are not part of it. This could lead to negative feelings on the part of the rest of the citizens and is far removed from the raison d’être of this type of organisation, where respect and teamwork mark its existence. Losing this essence would mean individualising the movement and condemning it to disappear.

The feeling of identity can have a great impact on a society and can be a determining factor in its development. A territory that believes in its people, that wants to defend culture and that promotes all kinds of activities based on self-organisation and voluntary work is, without a doubt, a territory with a desire to constantly evolve. In Catalonia, the associative fabric is witness to this desire and is growing every day with its sights set on the future, but without losing sight of its origins. Working collectively for a future with a fairer and more committed society is a commitment to people and to ensure that, from the associations, their welfare and that of the territory will be looked after.

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We have all been victims and even contributed to it without realising it. Disinformation, understood as manipulated information that is disseminated with the intention to deceive, is a phenomenon as old as communication. Fighting fake news is within the reach of each of us.

“Disinformation has a part of falsehood and a part of hate speech. To combat it, we need to work on respect for the opinions of others, empathy, ethics and conversation.” Nereida Carrillo, journalist and promoter of Learn to Check, warns of the main reason for disinformation: deception. Interests, power and information are mixed in a social and technological context that makes any content of this type go viral and circulate around the world in a matter of seconds. The veracity of information transcends the roles of journalists and is left in the hands of the user.

Disinformation has increased significantly in recent years due to new technologies, which allow information to circulate more quickly and globally. But it is not only social networks that are loudspeakers of disinformation: so are the mainstream media, even if they often find it hard to admit it. Because the phenomenon of disinformation is as old as communication and the will of hegemonic power to impose its narrative. Moreover, any information, Carrillo explains, is always based on the prism provided by the author: “Objective information does not exist, there is always an account of the facts and we explain what is happening in the world through our cultural, gender or age filters,” she reasons.

Convincing with arguments

The Col·legi de Periodistes de Catalunya describes in the first article of the Code of Ethics that it is necessary to report carefully and accurately. Leaving the search for truth to philosophy, both in journalism and in the content created and disseminated by networks, what is sought is honesty and veracity. Information must be plural, it must not be misleading, it must be oriented towards informing and sources must be checked to avoid manipulation. 

At the very least, this is what we should be looking for when verifying information. One of the ambitious objectives of Learn to Check is that anyone should be able to contrast the information that reaches them. That is why there is only one way: training in tools and a critical spirit. Thanks to the knowledge that its platform shares openly, anyone can verify, without depending on mediators. This is a way of empowering citizens and achieving, together, to stop disinformation in what is called distributed verification.

The PhD in communication also warns that in the networks we have become accustomed to defending our position from the extremes: “The algorithms of social networks polarise, they place us all at opposite poles and it seems that nuances do not exist, that there can be no exchange or conversations.”

Veracity: you set the filter

In closed environments such as WhatsApp or Telegram, it is very difficult to trace where the information comes from, and this often leads us to confuse trusted sources with reliable sources, explains Carrillo. Reliable sources are those that have been verified and, therefore, are based on veracity, while the former are based on trust in the person who sent them to us. This is the main problem of older people, who let themselves be carried away by trust and verify the information according to who is sending the message and even according to which media is reporting the news.

To combat disinformation, especially in the age of social networks, Carrillo argues that we must return to conversation and learn to disseminate information and, above all, our ideas, in a reasoned way and with arguments. “Lying is a very easy and unethical way of convincing,” she remarks, adding that listening to people who do not think like us, although it may not change your mind, will allow you to understand the other person. More empathy and more veracity to face the era of global communication.

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As with the resolution of past conflicts, the meeting of the victors at the end of the Second World War in the German city of Potsdam in the summer of 1945 once again divided the world into two blocs. The great Western powers implemented a new economic model allowing them to impose their pre-eminence over other countries.

Two political, social and economic models – in principle antagonistic – that would clash several times over the decades in small, low-intensity armed conflicts that would become the great lever of economic growth for the Western world.

However, the Potsdam Conference also confirmed that industrial capitalism – initiated at the end of the 18th century – was an exhausted economic model. The more than sixty million deaths resulting from the Second World War forced the old European monarchies – now evolved into Western democracies – to adopt much more subtle ways of achieving their economic goals. The new extractive strategy therefore had to be less catastrophic and more effective. Therefore, the new economic model that will be progressively deployed will no longer involve having to physically occupy territory but will be sufficient to control local elites.

With this new strategy, the United States, as the big winner and supported by a powerful military-industrial complex, will be able to displace the world’s economic centre – from Europe to North America – through the imposition of its currency, the financial pressure exerted by its banks, and the creation of technological dependence on a global scale. Thus, the establishment of their well-known multinationals – Amazon, Nike, Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Apple, McDonald’s, Disney, HP and others – will allow it to directly or indirectly conquer almost the entire world. Entertainment, mainly cinema and major sporting events such as the Olympic Games, the Super Bowl or the World Cup, will be the real weapons of mental and material subjugation that would make it possible to extend the American dream to the whole world.

Social peace, the basis of the new economic efficiency

It all began in the spring of 1951 in Montreal, when representatives of various Western intelligence agencies met secretly with university psychiatry professors at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel. As a result of that meeting, we know from declassified documents that the US military invested a large amount of money in McGill University in Montreal to research sensory isolation.

This research was initiated by Dr Donald Olding Hebb, who would eventually abandon the project when he realised the magnitude of the tragedy and completed by Dr Donald Ewen Cameron, who would take it to a higher level. Cameron went on to experiment with many patients who were subjected to a multitude of electroshock sessions, combined with sleep cures and constant repetition of recorded messages to the point of mental exhaustion.

The study found that sensory isolation is a way of generating extreme monotony that leads to a reduction in critical thinking capacity through the confusion of the individual’s mind. Therefore, when a person is not able to reason… we are in trouble!

The results of all these experiments will allow Western intelligence agencies to design mechanisms of control over their population to guarantee social stability within democracies. Consequently, the idea of freedom of speech, freedom of the press and the right to private property, the fundamental basis of the free market, will be repeated ad nauseam. To ensure economic efficiency, competition will be made an instrument to drive economic growth, based on the premise that “if the company next door has better products and more sales than me, I will consequently have to develop better ideas to be better than my competition”.

Not least, the studies on sensory deprivation will enable Western intelligence agencies to develop interrogation manuals – such as the famous KUBARK manual of the US military and the CIA – to be used against internal and external dissidents of the system the West’s postulates.

The management of fear

The technological breakthrough of World War II would take humanity into outer space – to the Moon and beyond – but it also led to the development of the atomic bomb as a weapon of global destruction. It will be used as an instrument of political pressure that persists to this day.

The five main arms manufacturing countries in the world – the United States, Britain, France, Russia and China – are the ones who are in charge of our peace. They make a business out of war, but they sell peace, above all, through the propagandist MSM serving Western hegemonic powers that test the ‘democracy’ of each country. They are big media that confuse freedom of expression with freedom of pressure and decide who is a dictator or a coup leader, which incidentally has the “bad habit” of making people vote to find out what they think about that policy or any other issue that may affect them. And those media outlets that don’t follow these guidelines are shut down or taken to the confines of the system. The news shows a reality that often doesn’t exist to suggest, isolate and pit us against each other!

Economic shock therapy

As everyone knows, the Wall Street crash of 1929 triggered the Great Depression of the 1930s. By 1932, some 5,096 banks went into receivership. Their collapse drove many companies into bankruptcy, which saw stocks of goods accumulate, and led to a significant fall in prices, especially in the agricultural sector. Finally, the decline in economic activity led to a runaway rise in unemployment.

Influenced by the economist John M. Keynes, the newly proclaimed President of the United States, F. D. Roosevelt, launched a major public employment programme to get people back to work: the policy known as the New Deal. But it was not until after the Second World War that the Depression ended, thanks in large part to the implementation of the famous Marshall Plan, which generalised Keynes’s regulatory and interventionist model to most of the Western world.

Contrary to Keynes’ postulates, we find already in the late 1940s a small group of intellectuals – known as the Mont Pelerin Society and led by the Austrian economist Friedrich August von Hayek – who were convinced that if governments stopped providing services and regulating markets, the problems of the world economy would solve themselves. One of its leading representatives and professor of economics at the University of Chicago, Milton Friedman, believed that through economic shock therapy, he would push societies to accept a purer, deregulated capitalism.

Indeed, the theses of the shock doctrine have been imposed all over the world in different processes. These radical measures have triumphed not so much from the hand of freedom and democracy but from their imposition through shocks, crises and states of emergency. Thus, far from sugar-coating the role of the US in becoming a global hegemon, its ability to control the world is due to sanctions, restrictions, blockades, freezes, confiscations or military action.

Above all, the role played by the creation of a specific international bureaucracy, generated strictly because it does not depend on the United Nations and is therefore exempt from any direct control that might upset the international community, has been essential. These supranational bodies – World Bank, World Trade Organisation and International Monetary Fund – have executed all these economic shock therapies by the book all over the world, combining political pressure with extortion. And there is no shortage of examples!

A system in need of a financial mafia

In 2004, the American John Perkins – a former employee of the American consulting firm CHA Consulting, Inc. – published an interesting book entitled Confessions of an Economic Hit Man”, in which he explains in detail how he participated in different processes of economic colonisation of Third World countries, especially on the South American continent, during the 1980s.

Perkins, as chief economist at CHA Consulting, had the task of identifying countries with natural resources of interest to the clients – mostly corporations – represented by his consultancy.

Once identified, the next stage was to send a “small army of jackals” to the country in question to promise that, with the sale of its resources, the country would achieve Western standards of social welfare and economic stability. Finally, the country was forced to take out a large loan – through the World Bank or other related organisations – justified to the public as part of the deal and because it had neither the technology nor the infrastructure to extract, produce or manufacture the natural resource.

But this amount of money never reached the country in question, since it left the World Bank – based in Washington – and was diverted to an account in Houston, Texas or San Francisco, where, funnily enough, the owner was a company that worked for the consultancy, and which specialised in the construction of the infrastructure necessary to extract, produce or manufacture the natural resource.

Thus, the money was used to pay for the cost of the construction – power stations, roads, industrial parks, ports – which in the end only generated large profits for the companies awarded the contracts. It is true that, to a lesser degree, they also ended up enriching a local minority who owned the basic industries or commercial establishments, but to the detriment of the majority. Thus, at the end of the process, all the country’s economic resources earmarked for health, education or other public services were used to repay those loans. As John Perkins explains, knowing upfront the country’s inability to repay the loans was an important part of executing the plan.

Thus, this system has allowed Western corporations or supranational bodies – the World Bank, the World Trade Organisation and the International Monetary Fund – to create a parallel empire that controls large parts of the planet: the so-called “areas of influence”. It is for this reason that Western democracies can tell one of these “voluntarily influenced” countries that if it cannot repay its loans, it can always sell its resources to be exploited… without the obligation of a social or environmental commitment; or that it has to allow the construction of a military base on its territory, or that it has to vote against certain countries considered “enemies” at the next United Nations meeting.

When the president of one of these countries does not accept, the government is often intervened or overthrown. The process starts with a strong national and international smear campaign, false news of all kinds is created to condition public opinion and, in the end – in favour of democracy – the coup d’état is carried out with full justification. And if it did not go well, he would end up being assassinated. Contemporary history is full of examples: Mossadeq in Iran (1953), Ngô Đình Diệm in Vietnam (1955), Lumumba in the Congo (1960) Allende in Chile (1973). More recently, the pressures of all kinds that Lula da Silva has had to endure to stop the deforestation of the Brazilian Amazon, and Maduro to nationalise Venezuelan oil or Petro for the decarbonisation of the Colombian economy.

The economy of death

In 2009, amid the global recession, the English psychologist Oliver James published the book “The Selfish Capitalist”, which concludes that behind the mental illnesses of today’s Western society lies the capitalism that has been practised for the last fifty years. Simplifying a lot, the thesis of the book exposes how the Anglo-Saxon neoliberal economy has pushed individuals to want to have more and more cars, mobile phones, clothes, and money… and all this has led to permanent dissatisfaction of the individual. Based on a study published by the World Health Organisation in 2004, concludes that mental illness affects almost 23% of the population in the Anglo-Saxon world and 11.5% in the rest of the European countries, given that they entered the neoliberal wheel later.

For example, in the United States, the number of young students with huge debt is increasing, just as there is a huge number of people in debt for healthcare, credit cards or mortgages. So this system, designed to exploit the so-called “developing” countries, has now turned against the West.

On the other hand, neoliberal economics has sought to maximise short-term profits without taking into account the social cost and environmental impact. And here, neoliberals like Friedman got it wrong: beyond the short term, we need to increase profits in the long term, so that everyone wins. If we are guided by the goal of paying a decent rate of return to investors who invest, we can begin to change the model.

According to the latest report by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), global military spending increased by 3.7% in real terms in 2022, to a new all-time high of $2.24 trillion. If much of this money went to pay the same companies that get these million-dollar contracts, but instead of paying to make missiles, it would go to collecting all the plastics in the oceans, restoring destroyed natural environments, cleaning up the waste dumped in the oceans… the planet would be a much better place. And in this process, new technologies can help us to make it possible.

Multipolarity

This system has worked as long as the winners have been the United States, since it allowed their allies to take a piece of the pie on the condition that they supported its international policy or facilitated access to their markets for its companies. The United States has shared the pie with aligned countries, but not with those who were willing to dispute its economic interests.

At this point, we are entering a new era where the distribution of political, military and financial power will no longer rest with a single country. In short, the world will no longer dance to a single tune. We have already begun to dance to the tune of oriental music, to the rhythms of the balalaika, combined with a little samba, a touch of Indi-pop and a dash of mbaqanga.

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It was at the end of the 11th century that feudalism finally took hold. The feudal lords, nobles or members of the Church, would force the peasants to hand over a surplus on their work, emasculating their freedoms and forcing a large part of the population into debt. Oriol Garcia Farré, 11Onze agent and historian, explains it to us.

It was a political, economic, legal and social system established during the Middle Ages throughout the European continent. The kingdoms were divided into small territories that had a certain degree of independence, which were administered by the new feudal lords, lay and ecclesiastical, who provided ‘protection’ to the peasants attached to the land, in exchange for tribute and labour.

At least this was the official rhetoric, as Garcia explains, “most of the existing documentation on the process of feudalisation only explains what the lords or the ecclesiastics were interested in documenting“, and he continues, “bear in mind that in this documentation broad sectors of society, such as the peasants, will be left out”.

The obligation to generate a surplus

With the imposition of feudalism, agricultural and livestock production became the mainstay of the economy. The systematic exploitation of the peasants through the collection of taxes, without which “it would never have been possible to build castles, towers, monasteries, or Romanesque gateways”, Garcia points out, gave way to the need to “demand and bind new lands for farming”.

Thus, there was an intensification of agriculture spurred on by the coercion of the feudal lords exercised over the communities of free peasants, “who throughout this process of feudalisation were forced to abandon their subsistence economy, with the sole aim of generating a surplus”, says Garcia.

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Banco Sabadell and CaixaBank were born in Catalonia, but by 2017 they already had more than 70% of their business outside the country that made them prosper. Many people discovered this when in October 2017 the two entities moved their headquarters in response to the independence movement.

In 1844 La Caixa d’Estalvis i Mont de Pietat de Barcelona was born, which would later give rise to La Caixa. In 1881 the industrial bourgeoisie of Sabadell created Banc Sabadell. Both entities were born and grew in Catalonia until they became very important players in the Spanish financial system. In October 2017, the two institutions moved their headquarters out of Catalonia, in reaction to the social movement for independence and the referendum of 1 October. But what was the point of it all?

The reasons for leaving Catalonia

The main reason for abandoning the Catalans was that “people were not sure the bank would continue in the eurozone” if it kept its headquarters in Barcelona, as the then president of CaixaBank, Jordi Gual, explained in February 2020 in the Parliamentary committee on the application of article 155 of the Spanish Constitution. A weak excuse, because the banking licence depends on the Bank of Spain, whether you have your headquarters in Barcelona, Valencia, Paris or anywhere else.

There are many foreign banks operating in Spain, you just have to apply for the licence and get it authorised by the Bank of Spain. Therefore, if Catalonia had become independent, Catalan banks would have continued to operate under the umbrella of the Bank of Spain, unless the Bank of Spain had cancelled the licence. Obviously, this would be very difficult to do because it would create distrust in the Spanish financial system and in the Bank of Spain itself.

One clear reason to understand the relocation of the two banks out of Catalonia and to understand that, in fact, the Bank of Spain would never have withdrawn their licence, is that in 2017 neither of the two banks was Catalan. Banc Sabadell then concentrated only 29% of its business in Catalonia. And CaixaBank even less, 22%. It is clear that the Bank of Spain would not withdraw the licence to operate in Spain from two banks with more than 70% of their assets in Spain (excluding Catalonia).

Entities made by Catalans

The cross-cutting response of Catalan society on 3 October was decisive. On 5 October, Banc Sabadell announced the transfer of its registered office to Alicante, taking advantage of the fact that it already had facilities there. It became the first major Ibex company to leave Catalonia. The following day, CaixaBank approved its move to Valencia, taking advantage of the facilities it had at the Banco de Valencia, and the Fundació La Caixa moved to Palma de Mallorca.

The move was interpreted as undisguised pressure from the two banks on the Catalan citizens who had made them great. But the reality is that the only thing the two institutions did was to relocate following their business model. Catalonia represented less than 30% of the volume of Sabadell and CaixaBank. In October 2017 they were no longer Catalan banks working for the Catalans, it is a false idea that citizens discovered traumatically that October 5 years ago. CaixaBank and Banc Sabadell were already large financial corporations with more business outside Catalonia than inside, so they followed their interests.

At the end of October, CaixaBank’s share price was 192,717 million euros in deposits and Banc Sabadell, 98,654 million euros. As for their stock market value, the recovery took months: it was not until early 2018 that both CaixaBank and Banc Sabadell recovered their pre-independence referendum valuations. In the case of CaixaBank, it was back above 25,000 million euros and Banc Sabadell rose above 10,000 million euros.

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