Intersectionalities of the Left and Right in Latin America and Europe. An exploration of contemporary political processes

The current rise of new right-wing groups with a particular combination of intransigent economic liberalism and conservative nationalist fascism, a kind of liberfascism, advocates for both a strict apology for the capitalist market and the exclusion of anything that challenges its model in the political and cultural spheres. Based on the populist discourse that exploits the discontent caused by neoliberal democracy, they gain followers for nationalist, cultural, and racist reasons that in the end are nothing more than right-wing deception to protect the rule of capital. Faced with the restoration of an already exhausted neoliberal model, an intersectionality appears between the Left and the Right which, far from confirming the diagnosis of the end of ideologies and the deactivation of the class struggle, rekindles conflicts over capital. This article deals with such a situation. It argues how intersectionality is not a privilege of the Left, but is also used by the extreme populist Right to channel discontent and propagate its particular brand of oppression. It is concluded, based on examples of struggles in Latin America and Europe, that an intersectional and transversal politics must be developed in the face of the hegemony of the new populist and nationalist Right; the political tactic must not be local, but must pursue a new international strategy

Redefining the Common Causes of Social Struggles: An Examination of the Antinomies of Value, Labor and Subsumption

In the global contemporary political context, diverse social struggles are being alienated from each other to the point that the illusion of capitalism as the only possible socio-economic system is blurring all horizons of social change. In this article, we will aim to redefine the common causes of social struggles, by demonstrating their intersectionality and interdependence. In order to do so, we will engage with a number of concepts from Marx’s philosophy. In the introduction, we will examine the notion of value, claiming that Marx’s value theory is not simply a labor theory of value, but that it rather reflects the parallax structure of production and circulation, crystallized in the ultimate value-form of money. Having obtained these preliminary insights, we will go back to the phenomenon of labor in capitalism, to reinterpret, in the first section of the article, the Marxian distinction between productive and unproductive labor. From this will follow the first concrete examples of the intersectionality of social struggles against the abstraction of capital: namely, showing that gender and racial struggles have certain common causes, rooted in the Gramscian hegemony. In the second section, we will examine the distinction that Marx establishes between the formal and the real subsumption. The latter, we will claim, is decisive for understanding how capital structures the quasi-totality of our social relations. Following an interpretation of Maren Ade’s film Toni Erdmann, we will propose some possible means of intersectional struggle against real subsumption, that will find their theoretical backing in the concept of subversive universals. The concluding remarks will address the nuclear logic of the distribution and accumulation of capital, a symptom that survives throughout history preserved and driven by the omnipresence of ideology, and stress again implicitly the importance of common struggle in the unfreezing of emergence of a new revolutionary subject

Libertad, historia y el sujeto del inconsciente. Contribuciones teóricas al estudio de la ideología

In this article we address the notions of freedom, history and subjectivity, in order make an original contribution to the studies of ideology. Our methodology will consist in crossing Freudian-Lacanian psychoanalysis and the theory of interpellation of Louis Althusser. In the introduction, we start by exposing two major critiques of Freudian psychoanalysis, one formulated by Jean-Paul Sartre, and the other by Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari, thus shedding the light on how the psychoanalysis could represent (despite those critical arguments), a field of freedom rather than determinism, and a domain which is inherently historical, rather than the opposite. In the first section, will look closer at the notions of freedom, memory and history, advancing a preliminary hypothesis according to which within the symbolic space, the past remains open to changes – which will make both ideology and freedom possible. Moreover, we will see what aspects of freedom could be found within the Althusserian theory of interpellation, and how Lacanian psychoanalysis is compatible with it or can lead us beyond its limitations. In the second section, we will see how there can be a subject that precedes subjectivation, and how Lacan’s theory of subject which arises from the traumatic remainder, surpasses the scope of the theory of interpellation. The third section will address the pulse-traumatic core of the subject, such as it is conceived by Freud, not only as a determining dimension of the individual psyche, but as a structural condition of culture. Via these considerations, we will show how psychoanalysis can provide an explanation of the foundations of ideology, by conceiving the pulse-traumatic core of law that resides in the Name-of-Father. In the conclusion, we will see, through a series of examples, how ideology appears in the guise of truth, and why the psychoanalytic understanding of the unconscious is necessary for debunking the illusions it produces.En este artículo abordamos las nociones de libertad, historia y subjetividad, con el fin de aportar una contribución original a los estudios sobre la ideología. Nuestra metodología consistirá en cruzar el psicoanálisis freudiano-lacaniano y la teoría de la interpelación de Louis Althusser. En la introducción, comenzaremos exponiendo dos grandes críticas al psicoanálisis freudiano, una formulada por Jean-Paul Sartre, y la otra por Gilles Deleuze y Félix Guattari, arrojando así la luz sobre cómo el psicoanálisis podría representar (a pesar de esos argumentos críticos), un campo de libertad en lugar de determinismo, y un dominio que es inherentemente histórico, en lugar de lo contrario. En la primera sección, examinaremos más de cerca las nociones de libertad, memoria e historia, avanzando una hipótesis preliminar según la cual, dentro del espacio simbólico, el pasado permanece abierto a los cambios, lo que hará posible tanto la ideología como la libertad. Además, veremos qué aspectos de la libertad podrían encontrarse dentro de la teoría althusseriana de la interpelación, y cómo el psicoanálisis lacaniano es compatible con ella o puede llevarnos más allá de sus limitaciones. En la segunda sección, veremos cómo puede haber un sujeto que precede a la subjetivación, y cómo la teoría del sujeto de Lacan que surge del resto traumático, sobrepasa el alcance de la teoría de la interpelación. La tercera sección abordará el núcleo pulsional-traumático del sujeto, tal como lo concibe Freud, no sólo como dimensión determinante del psiquismo individual, sino como condición estructural de la cultura. A través de estas consideraciones, mostraremos cómo el psicoanálisis puede proporcionar una explicación de los fundamentos de la ideología, al concebir el núcleo pulsional-traumático de la ley que reside en el Nombre-del-Padre. En la conclusión, veremos, a través de una serie de ejemplos, cómo la ideología aparece disfrazada de verdad, y por qué la comprensión psicoanalítica del inconsciente es necesaria para desenmascarar las ilusiones que produce