La potencia feminista

by Verónica Gago

El movimiento feminista alcanzó en los últimos años un protagonismo de nuevo tipo. La masividad y radicalidad de esta experiencia política desbordó las calles y transformó la gramática de diversas luchas. Al interior de un proceso que sigue abierto, La potencia feminista está escrita en clave de investigación militante, en medio de las asambleas y los paros, en diálogo con compañerxs de todo el mundo, formulando interrogantes y elaborando ideas desde adentro de las dinámicas organizativas. En este sentido, la huelga como concepto y como experiencia colectiva le sirve de lente para delimitar algunas problemáticas actuales del movimiento feminista y de la teoría política en general: un diagnóstico de la crisis que permite poner en conexión las violencias económicas, financieras, políticas, institucionales, coloniales y sociales; la necesidad de componer las rebeldías, desplazando la retórica de la victimización; una impugnación concreta a la razón neoliberal. En el contexto actual de emergencia de una contraofensiva neoliberal y conservadora, la apuesta por un feminismo transversal ligado a las conflictividades en los distintos cuerpos y territorios, es la posibilidad de elaborar una teoría alternativa del poder fundada en el deseo de cambiarlo todo.

Genres: Feminism, Nonfiction, Politics, Activism, Economics, Womens, Race

256 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2019

About the author

Verónica Gago is Professor of Social Sciences at the University of Buenos Aires, Professor at the Instituto de Altos Estudios, Universidad Nacional de San Martín, and Assistant Researcher at the National Council of Research (CONICET). Her work is deeply influenced by active participation in the experience of Colectivo Situaciones.

Reviews

[Jaden · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was really excited about this one. I thought it would be a theoretically informed account of radical feminist internationalism, grounded in feminist struggles around the world with a focus on the global South. It wasn't. Instead, it was poorly executed, full of unnecessary and unhelpful academic jargon, with an extremely obscure writing style that reminded me of the worst, most performative parts of grad school. It is exactly the kind of inaccessible ivory tower writing that we need to get far away from.

I sympathize with the idea that sometimes specialized jargon is necessary for analysis, but this book hid a *lack* of analysis under cover of jargon rather than using concepts to illuminate the world. Despite its self-stated methodology, it did not theorize from the perspective of the struggles of working women in Argentina and Latin America more generally (indeed the book hardly even discussed actual happenings on the ground, which was really disappointing). It was all obscure theory, and to make things worse, even if you read it as theory, there wasn't anything there.

I gave it the benefit of the doubt (for too long as it turns out), thinking that *maybe just maybe* the next chapter will be better, eventually finished the whole thing, and wished I had spent my time more wisely afterward. The fact that feminist internationalism is such an important topic and political perspective made it all the more disappointing for me. Verso did excellent marketing for this one, but it is not what the blurbs or description promise. If you read Feminism for the 99% and are looking this book up because you want to learn more, stay far away! (Also: if you read Martin Arboleda's Planetary Mine and found it badly written and obscure, this one is exactly the same.) Would have been one star if not for my respect for Verso as a publisher and Gagos as a person, and a few minimally interesting insights on social reproduction via a commentary on Silvia Federici.

[Alberto Figueroa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Entre todas las cosas que hay que encontrar en el respeto, es valorar a la mujer y dejar de ejercer fuerzas inexistentes contra ellas y este libro es muy interesante y fácil de compartir para que aquellos que estén interesados en el tema lo puedan razonar y meditar.

[Annabelle Berthiaume · Rating 4 out of 5]

“La formule de la grève [féministe] a été cruciale pour produire un diagnostic de la violence capable de dépasser la position de la victime qu’on nous impose comme seule réaction possible face à la violence sexiste et aux féminicides en particulier. La grève n’incarne plus seulement une histoire européenne, celle de la classe ouvrière blanche et masculine; au contraire - comme à d’autres moments dans l’histoire - elle est devenue une manière de mettre en lumière d’autres formes de sabotage, de désertion et aussi de connexion avec l’élément historiquement dévalué du corps féminin: le travail reproductif, communautaire et migrant.” - p.253-254

[Malcolm · Rating 4 out of 5]

The claim to propose a way to change everything seems a provocation, especially in the time-since-Lyotard with our continuing scepticism about grand narratives and yet Verónica Gago, a leading figure in the contemporary Argentinian feminist movement, seems to be making such a claim…. except that is not her sense of ‘everything’. Instead, she uses the tactic and practice of the feminist strike – developed as a weapon of feminist struggle – in the later 2010s to rethink the conditions of life and potential for fundamental change to the personal, domestic, social and economic (to the very limited extent they can be separated) circumstances of life – that it, to change everything.

As with all serious works of such fundamental thinking (by serious I mean those that recognise the complexity of circumstances) Feminist International is a challenging read. My way into the analysis, after some reflection during and since reading it, has been to work with Gago’s notion of the ‘body territory’ that allows her to overcome the distinction between social practices and processes that affect human, non-human and socio-spatial actors while also locating the subject of analysis in a specific locale. This means that the two key aspects I took from her argument – systemic violence and false distinction between productive and reproductive labour – mean she is able construct a theory for the change of everything.

These questions of violence, body-territory and relations of exploitation/extraction form the theoretical core of the analysis allowing her to build a beginning-to-be-coherent theory of socio-cultural, spatial and economic relations as they emerge from the current dynamics of feminist struggles for change. These three analytical fields are explored through lenses provided by contemporary struggles for social, cultural and economic rights in Argentina and across other parts of Latin America. The effect therefore is not the model for understanding and for change, but the beginning of different way of thinking based in current struggles as they are developing meaning that she concludes the text with a series of theses – statements of the current condition needing further work, analysis and exploration. That is to say, despite grappling with big issues to build a demanding case, Gago’s analysis is impressively conditional, open and contingent. It is the kind of thing we can and should be using to stimulate debate and inquiries.

By my reading the second part of the analysis, second only in that it seems to me to deal with the where and the how of struggle, not the what of situational analysis. Here she focuses on the strike as a tactic and heuristic allowing exploration of both the what and the how, on the notion that the assembly can be a site for debate and development of collective understanding and intelligence, and that these struggles and understandings are increasingly internationalist. It is here also that the ‘body territory’ becomes important because it requires that we situate analyses and action in the specificity of the local rather than some abstracted everything/everywhere.

Again, these are complex and demanding ideas in part because they are fundamental, in part because they are built in a context outside the dominant North Atlantic analytical nexus, in part because Gago grapples with coloniality, in part because she makes considerable use of Rosa Luxemburg’s analyses that remain less well known than other approaches, and in part because they are written from within a continuing struggle and shifting scenario. That is to say, they are demanding because they are in part contingent. They are also tempered by a useful critique of the anti-feminist counteroffensive, where she pays particular attention the Catholic Church (as befits analyses grounded in Argentina).

It is this sense of contingency and conditionality that makes this an open text. Don’t come it looking for a guide or singular set of solutions; look to it instead for a text that provokes thought and discussion, for the strengths and the gaps in the way she weaves together multiple sites and forces of oppression and struggle. It is theory from practice, demanding and provocative but not unnecessarily so. On these grounds alone it is worth the effort.

[Marina Ferreira · Rating 5 out of 5]

Esse é um livro muito impactante!


Esse livro me fez sair da zona de conforto e ir escrever um tcc sobre algo que eu não sei, fui, então, realmente investigar o que tanto me incomodava e incomoda na faculdade de direito: democracia liberal e feminismo.

Esse livro foi fundamental para colocar a minha cabeça para pensar, muita coisa passou batida, muita coisa me incomoda e outras discordo veemente da Verônica. Mas, de fato, é um livro intenso, e completamente subversivo.


Foi uma experiência intensa e profunda.

[Galina Maksimović · Rating 5 out of 5]

Vrhunsko, tvrdo, marksističko+

[ASC Library]

305.42 Gag

[John Mihelic · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gago blends together both an internationalist theory with praxis that she and her comrades are doing on the ground in Argentina. It was actually a really appropriate time for me to be reading it, as legal abortion was passed in the country as I was reading it. One thing that really hit home was thinking about the strike or any action as a process, and not a one-time event. Not sure if I have seen anything, I was reading really have such immediate real-world impact as I was in the process of reading. It’s a little hard to read since it is theory heavy and was written in translation but interesting, nonetheless.

[Maja Solar · Rating 3 out of 5]

really interesting reading, , particularly the section that illustrates the setting of Argentina's contemporary feminist struggle, and I appreciate how the perspective on violence against women is inextricably interrelated with the other threads of capitalism's violence... However, I think that both the Deleuzeian and the feminist perspectives which are more in line with autonomism & operaism fall short both theoretically and politically. There is a far better elaboration - with different political horizons and landmarks - in the 'hard' Marxist-feminist school, which does not reject Marx's theory of value; rather, it expands and enhances it (see, for instance, Susan Ferguson, Tithy Bhattacharya, Aaron Jaffee, etc.).

[Duraznito · Rating 3 out of 5]

Un texto bastante enriquecedor para toda mujer, pues nos presenta reflexiones necesarias que ayudan a comprender los roles de genero, la toma de decisiones y una visión poco hablada del papel de nosotras en la sociedad.
Solo quiero mencionar que a partir de la mitad del libro consideré que se volvió muy repetitivo y constante, generando que la lectura fuera lenta y poco interesante.

[brisingr · Rating 4 out of 5]

The 'international' bit in the title is a bit misleading, because it is just non-USA and definitely not globally encompassing, but this book stems from the lived experiences of the author in feminist organizations and movements, so it is a great read.

[Paola · Rating 5 out of 5]

Indispensable.

[Rock · Rating 2 out of 5]

Bien como marco teórico para la autora. Poco pedagógico para el resto.

[Luna · Rating 5 out of 5]

this is a fantastic book, completely mind-blowing, especially chapter 3, 4 and 5.

[Diego Kroeff · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best books I’ve ever read. An instant classic, a must read for all.

[Ian Diez · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gago and me 💏 but also I did not understand all of this book

[Malina]

Read for school

[Sophia]

WAKIE! WAKIE! TIME FOR WAR.

[KL Krause · Rating 4 out of 5]

The message is worth parsing through the academic jargon

[Lu · Rating 5 out of 5]

it's just a wow.

[Ellie Boian · Rating 3 out of 5]

Maybe it was the way it was translated, but the inaccessibility of the writing in this felt pretty contradictory to the foundation of the overall argument. Strong argument, just poorly executed .

[thaís bambozzi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Que aula! Foram tantos os ensinamentos que adquiri com essa leitura, me senti uma verdadeira aluna ansiando por conhecer mais e mais sobre os assuntos. Uma abordagem abrangente, profunda e, o melhor de tudo, sul-americana das lutas feministas e de seus desdobramentos na vida das mulheres. Nunca havia tido um contato maior com a temática da potência das greves feministas e das assembleias como ações e espaços tão fecundos, transformadores e essenciais para o movimento. Agora, para mim, o caráter anticapitalista do feminismo é mais do que evidente em todas as suas dimensões. #NosMueveElDeseo