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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