Agustí Chalaux i de Subirà
Encyclopedia
Barcelona
Barcelona is the second largest city in Spain after Madrid, and the capital of Catalonia, with a population of 1,621,537 within its administrative limits on a land area of...
, 2006), was a Catalan thinker, who designed a political, economic and social model meant to reduce as much as possible the misuse of power, extreme poverty and corruption.
Biography
He was born at Sant Genís dels AgudellsSant Genís dels Agudells
Sant Genís dels Agudells is a neighborhood in the Horta-Guinardó district of Barcelona, Catalonia ....
, which was then a hamlet with 15 inhabitants near Barcelona
Barcelona
Barcelona is the second largest city in Spain after Madrid, and the capital of Catalonia, with a population of 1,621,537 within its administrative limits on a land area of...
, on 19 July 1911. His father was a French
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
businessman who had a factory producing dyes for woollens in Almogàvers street, in Barcelona
Barcelona
Barcelona is the second largest city in Spain after Madrid, and the capital of Catalonia, with a population of 1,621,537 within its administrative limits on a land area of...
. His mother was from the Subirà family, with a Catalan
Catalonia
Catalonia is an autonomous community in northeastern Spain, with the official status of a "nationality" of Spain. Catalonia comprises four provinces: Barcelona, Girona, Lleida, and Tarragona. Its capital and largest city is Barcelona. Catalonia covers an area of 32,114 km² and has an...
Carlist tradition. When he was four he was sent to the Montessori
Maria Montessori
Maria Montessori was an Italian physician and educator, a noted humanitarian and devout Catholic best known for the philosophy of education which bears her name...
school, one of the first to be opened in Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
. At nine years of age he was sent to France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
to study, where he stayed in Toulon until he finished high school.
Mulhouse
Mulhouse |mill]] hamlet) is a city and commune in eastern France, close to the Swiss and German borders. With a population of 110,514 and 278,206 inhabitants in the metropolitan area in 2006, it is the largest city in the Haut-Rhin département, and the second largest in the Alsace region after...
School of Chemistry, where he learned the scientific method as applied to physical and chemical phenomena, which he used to start organizing the study of social and economic phenomena with the same accuracy and rigour.
He was in touch with Catalanist political groups first and then with libertarian groups. At the beginning of the Spanish Civil War
Spanish Civil War
The Spanish Civil WarAlso known as The Crusade among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War among Carlists, and The Rebellion or Uprising among Republicans. was a major conflict fought in Spain from 17 July 1936 to 1 April 1939...
he lived in Barcelona
Barcelona
Barcelona is the second largest city in Spain after Madrid, and the capital of Catalonia, with a population of 1,621,537 within its administrative limits on a land area of...
, where he carried on his observations and studies, while working at the same time in the family factory, which was never nationalized nor collectivized, teaming up with the trade-unions, who called him «Xaló».
In 1939 he went into exile to Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, where he was caught up by Second World War. He was mobilized in the Artillery School for officers, and after the German occupation of the country, the French government, at whose head was Pétain, demobilized him and he resumed his studies.
He returned to Catalonia
Catalonia
Catalonia is an autonomous community in northeastern Spain, with the official status of a "nationality" of Spain. Catalonia comprises four provinces: Barcelona, Girona, Lleida, and Tarragona. Its capital and largest city is Barcelona. Catalonia covers an area of 32,114 km² and has an...
in 1945. He was a regular reader of «La Semana Internacional» («The International week»), a magazine published in Chile
Chile
Chile ,officially the Republic of Chile , is a country in South America occupying a long, narrow coastal strip between the Andes mountains to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage in the far...
by Joan Bardina, who also had an influence on him.
In 1956, after the occupation of Hungary
Hungary
Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...
, he reached the conclusion that violence was the wrong path for the introduction of a political change.
In 1968 he left his job as a chemist. He took part in the «Universitat al Carrer» («Street University»), which later was officially renamed «Institut de Cultura Popular» («Institute of Popular Culture»).
With Lluís Maria Xirinacs
Lluís Maria Xirinacs
Lluís Maria Xirinacs i Damians was a Catalan politician, writer, religious leader and advocate for the independence of the Catalan Countries.-Biography:He was born in Barcelona in 1932, and he became a priest when he was 22....
and other persons, a new association was created to study his new political, economic and social model, and in 1984 they founded the «Centre d’Estudis Joan Bardina» («Joan Bardina Study Centre»), which had its offices in the old family factory.
Among others he published the following books: «Assaig sobre moneda, mercat i societat» («Essay on currency, market and society»), and «Moneda telemàtica i estratègia de mercat» («Telematic currency and market strategy»). In the document «Disseny de Civisme» («Civism Project») he gave shape to his suggested programme.
Agustí Chalaux died in Barcelona on 26 April 2006.
Related works
- «Introducció al sistema general» («Introduction to general system»), (Catalan) together with Magdalena Grau Figueras, September 11, 1983.
- «Una eina per a construir la pau» («An instrument to build peace»), (in English, Catalan, Spanish and French), July 1, 1984.
- «Assaig sobre moneda, mercado i societat» («Essay on currency, market and society»), in English, Catalan and (Spanish), with Magdalena Grau Figueras, 1984.
- «Moneda telemàtica i estratègia de mercat» («Telematic currency and market strategy»), (in English, Catalan, Spanish, French and Italian), together with Magdalena Grau Figueras, 1985.
- «Glossari de termes inequívocs» («A glossary of unequivocal terms»), (Catalan), 1986.
- «Disseny de civisme» («Civism project»), (Catalan), 1988.
- «La plutarquia i altres relats» («Plutarchy and Other Tales»), (in English, Catalan, Spanish, Italian and Romanian), 1991.
- Martí Olivella Solé, «El poder del diner» («The power of money»), (in English, Catalan, Spanish and Italian). Joaquim Xirau Award in 1991.
- «Sistema General: "Economia i Societat" (En seixanta punts)» («General system: "Economics and Society", In sixty items»), (Catalan), together with Lluís Maria XirinacsLluís Maria XirinacsLluís Maria Xirinacs i Damians was a Catalan politician, writer, religious leader and advocate for the independence of the Catalan Countries.-Biography:He was born in Barcelona in 1932, and he became a priest when he was 22....
, December 6, 1996. - «El capitalisme comunitari» («Communal Capitalism»), (in English, Catalan, Spanish, French, Italian, German, Galician and Esperanto), February 12, 2000.
- «Història del capitalisme comunitari» («The History of Community Capitalism»), (in English, Catalan and Spanish), February 17, 2001.