Arcadi Oliveres always found a way to help you. Whether it was to tutor a paper on the euro crisis or give his opinion in a discussion on ethics and economics or a report on cuts. He never said no to you. He gave you his trust even before you asked for it. And every moment with him served to learn. He always taught you something, no matter what he was talking about.
His countless lessons have been one of the most valuable legacies he has left. This is one of the messages most repeated among the more than 7,000 dedications that family, friends, former students, activists, readers, listeners, or acquaintances have written on the website Paraules per a l'Arcadi, created by his family in early February to say goodbye to him, gravely ill.
"We are enormously grateful for the expressions of affection you have sent to Arcadi during the last weeks, with which you have made him feel loved and accompanied and have helped us celebrate his life. During this time, Arcadi has been enormously happy. In large part because he has been able to read practically all of the more than seven thousand messages you have sent him," the family expressed this Tuesday, after communicating his death, at 75 years old.
The tireless professor and activist leaves behind a long career dedicated to the defense of human rights, social justice, pacifism, and anti-globalization. During the dictatorship, Oliveres fought for democracy, political freedoms, and Catalan self-government, participating in the Caputxinada, among others. The long relationship he maintained with the Christian organization Justícia i Pau, which began in 1981, and where he was president from 2001 to 2014, stands out. In recent years, he actively involved himself in 15M and constituted the political platform Procés Constituent, together with Teresa Forcades.
Professor of Applied Economics at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB), Arcadi Oliveres wrote numerous articles and a dozen books on North-South relations, the military industry, external debt, or the economic crisis. Last February, he published his latest work Paraules d'Arcadi. Què he après del món i com podem actuar, by Angle Editorial, where he summarizes his political thought.