This interview was conducted in English.
Find this interview and its explanatory dossier at https://www.diagrammes.fr/en/folders/le-laboratoire-argentin
Duration: 2h07
Verónica Gago is a prominent Argentinian scholar and activist whose work bridges critical political economy, feminist theory, and the study of grassroots movements. A professor at the University of Buenos Aires and UNSAM, and a member of CONICET, she has been involved in major feminist mobilizations across Latin America, including Ni Una Menos, Marea Verde, and the Feminist Strike.From her role in the collective Tinta Limón Ediciones to her coordination of feminist research groups, Veronica Gago challenges the traditional boundaries between academia and activism.
Feminism, as she understands it, does not only deal with issues that are specific to women, such as reproductive rights. Instead, it should be treated as a perspective from which we can understand a wide range of economic, social, and political issues. Her collaborative book A Feminist Reading of the Debt exemplifies this approach: examining the deregulation of financial transactions, austerity programs, and even the ascendency of cryptocurrency through a feminist lens. Veronica Gago shows how macropolitical measures affect and are affected by microsocial practices; or, to use her own terms, how neoliberalism from above interacts with “neoliberalism from below” (the title of her 2014 book).
In our conversation, Veronica Gago reflects on the advent of Javier Milei, the libertarian president of Argentina.Just as Chile under Augusto Pinochet was a laboratory for the upcoming neoliberal era, Milei’s Argentina plays the role of a pilot experiment vis-à-vis the mutant neoliberal regimes that are currently taking over the world. Striking features of these new formations include the overtly sadistic deployment of cruelty as a mobilizing tool but also the masochistic appeal to sacrifice, in the name of the nation or even of freedom.
To ward off bleak political horizon, Veronica Gago bets on the transformative power of feminist organizing, celebrating la potencia feminista as a “desire to change everything.” Her work can truly serve as a remedy against militant depression.
CHAPTERS:
00:00:00 – Introduction to ARGENTINIAN LABORATORY
00:07:44 - (Chap.1) Collective Experiences of Political Formation
00:19:18 - (Chap.2) New Neoliberal Subjectivations
00:30:03 - (Chap.3) Baroque Entreprenerial Impulses
00:42:58 - (Chap.4) Feminist Organization and Resistance From Below
00:59:13 - (Chap.5) The (Un)Surprising Rise of Milei
01:10:10 - (Chap.6) Occupying the State to Destroy It
01:18:26 - (Chap.7)The Speculative and Sacrificial Generation
01:34:17 - (Chap.8) Gender Identifications and Interpellations
01:53:44 - (Chap.9) Neofascism from Above and from Below
01:58:40 - (Chap.10) Joyful Militancy in Critical Context
Interviewed by Michel Feher and Eric Fassin
Conducted on the 1st of April 2025 in Paris
Directed by Jean-Charles Ho Van Cam and Thierry Corroyer
Produced by Aurélie Windels
Dossier: Alexandra Bucher and Thomas Gmuer
Visual Research : Sophie Liner
Music by Laz Lo, Eeryskies, Damiens Simons
Voice : Amanda Bay
Podcast production : Deborah Le Grand
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#VerónicaGago, #Feminism, #Argentina, #JavierMilei, #Neoliberalism, #SocialMovements, #LatinAmerica, #NiUnaMenos, #FeministStrike,
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