INFAMY

Infamy is the name of a temporary exhibition currently on display at the Museu Marítim de Barcelona. The exhibition explains the Catalan participation in the highly lucrative business of the slave trade from Africa to the American colonies and in the use of slaves as labor in the businesses that were conducted there, especially in Cuba and Puerto Rico.

Indeed, historical research has revealed to us that some of the great fortunes—until now attributed to the entrepreneurial spirit of the Catalans who made their way in the Americas—turn out to have been forged through this perverse business, and that some big names of the Catalan bourgeoisie, illustrious figures, made their fortunes through this infamous practice. To our eyes today, the title could not be more fitting. However, to the people who were doing it, it must have seemed quite normal: “it’s what’s done,” “everyone does it,” “the system is like that,” “if we don’t do it, others will and they’ll profit,” “business is business”...

Hannah Arendt explained it very well, regarding the horrors committed by the Nazi regime in Germany, with her theory of the banality of evil. Normal people, simply through a lack of critical reflection, following the current of the system in which they are immersed, make real atrocities possible. Later, history—from outside the current that dragged them along, with perspective—will judge it very harshly.

Let’s now leave history and focus on our here and now. Europe has announced an additional defense expenditure of 800 billion. On the upcoming May, President Pedro Sánchez will explain to Congress his plan to reach 2% of GDP in military spending, but he has already announced an investment of around 10 billion euros, which will mostly go to the Spanish defense industry. Faced with these juicy amounts, many ears have perked up, many eyes have lit up with the euro symbol, many vultures have begun to circle, preparing to grab a good slice of this pie.

The Catalan powers-that-be are already asking what slice will go to us. Junts has conditioned its support on a significant part of this investment being made in Catalonia. Prensa Ibérica and El Periódico have already convened a Forum for Peace and Security in Europe, which, I quote directly from El Periódico, will be “...a day aimed at evaluating the opportunities that the rearmament plan recently launched by the European Union can generate for Catalonia... With the sponsorship of the Generalitat, the Barcelona City Council, and the Indra group, the Forum will analyze the potential of Catalonia’s productive fabric to position itself in this new European context and turn the security sector into a new engine of the Catalan economy.” Business on the horizon! It doesn’t matter what the goal of these investments is. No critical thinking. It doesn’t matter that the weapons are manufactured to kill and destroy, as we see in Ukraine and Gaza.

Every bullet produced is aimed at a person. Every chip designed for a missile or drone is destined for selective or collective murder. But we don’t look at that. It doesn’t matter that the business is done at the cost of the lives of thousands of people like us. Just as it didn’t matter to profit off slaves or to collaborate with the Nazi system. The system is like that—if we don’t take advantage of it, others will... A tune we already know. The important thing is that the country develops, that there are jobs and money. On this, employers and unions agree.

The banality of evil.

What will critical history say in a few years? The banners hung on lampposts in Barcelona, which announced an exhibition, gave me the name: INFAMY!