On February 1, tens of thousands took to the streets of Buenos Aires to protest against a suite of government policies released in the week prior and statements made by Argentinian president, Javier Milei at the World Economic Forum at Davos on January 23. Activists from the LGBTIQ+ Antifascist Assembly built a coalition with left groups to organise the mass mobilisation opposing the direction of the country under Millei and championing the rights of the Queer community to inclusion, safety and pride.

Speaking to the publication Presentes, transgender government worker Ese Montenegro said the march’s purpose was to expose “the fascism that the executive power embodies when it proposes a plan of extermination.” Montenegro further explained that recent attacks on “wokeness” were only the tip of the iceberg: “Just as they attack LGBTIQ+ people today, tomorrow they will attack migrants, in fact they are already doing so with the intensification of some policies.”

Milei took office in December 2023 with the highest proportion of the vote since the end of the military dictatorship in Argentina in 1983. In the campaign, he explicitly identified the state as his enemy and identified himself as an ‘anarcho-capitalist’. He clearly indicated his intention to dismantle social democracy in Argentina. He has also praised the oligarchy which dominated Argentina from 1880 until 1916 that was guided by a philosophy of Social Darwinism.

In the past, Argentina enjoyed relatively strong social welfare institutions such as free healthcare and education, largely as a product of militant labour organising and mass mobilisations. But it now faces deep contradictions. Inflation has been a perennial problem, with wages unable to keep up with the cost of living.

Argentine history also remains deeply contested, with the military dictatorship still in living memory. There are questions of how (or even if) to acknowledge this legacy in contemporary society, producing a deeply polarised population. It is into this context that a far-right ideology has seized power under the auspices of Milei and his equally odious deputy, Victoria Villarruel. 

Milei’s Davos speech blasted an airhorn of odious rhetoric and unambiguously demonstrated his intention to use hatred against anyone who would oppose his libertarian program. He included quotes from the writing of libertarian darling Ayn Rand.

Milei heaped praise upon his “Dear Friend” Elon Musk, defending him against accusations of Nazism as an example of “the mental virus of woke ideology.” He aligned himself with a veritable rogues’ gallery of far right icons: Donald Trump, Benjamin Netanyahu, Hungary’s Victor Orbán, Italian Prime Minister (and Mussolini apologist) Giorgia Meloni and El Salvadorian President Nayib Bukele, who has compared abortion to genocide amongst other things. Milei has stated his relationship with these leaders demonstrates a growing movement to defend the “Western World” from “wokeism.”

He also devoted a large portion of his speech to particularly attack the Queer community. He referenced a specific case of a gay couple prosecuted for sexual assault in the US in December 2024 to imply all members of the community are potential paedophiles and that “gender ideology is outright child abuse.” He made time to decry feminism as having gone too far and criticised laws in Argentina aimed at protecting women from violence and supporting their participation in politics and the workforce. He referred to immigration as “reverse colonialism” amounting to the “collective suicide” of Western civilisation.

El Diario reported on the government’s announced “megaproject” of reforms on the same day as Milei’s speech. Announced were plans to remove all quotas for gender minorities and disabled people in workplaces, removal of quotas for women in political parties’ candidate lists, the ending of the non-binary gender category on the DNI (Argentina’s national ID system) and the removal of the crime of femicide from the Argentine criminal code.

Edgardo Aló, whose 17-year-old daughter’s murder in 1996 started his involvement in the campaign which recognised the specificities of femicide a decade ago, spoke to CNN of the panic of knowing that the work to change the law was being rolled back. The Ombudsman’s Office also records that still in 2024 there were 252 femicides, with 84% murdered by a partner or former partner.

Milei had already dismantled the Ministry of Women, Gender and Diversity in June 2024. He has further begun to restructure government departments as a euphemism for mass sackings of workers. In the day before the Antifascist March, another protest was held at the Laura Bonaparte hospital in Buenos Aires which specialises in treating mental illness and substance use issues. Workers were locked out in November 2024, and over 200 have now been fired as part of the “restructuring process.” Workers and patients organised a protest and cultural events in the streets around the hospital as a demonstration of resistance. 

In the lead up to the protests and since, activist groups have been actively recruiting for further mobilisations through social media and postering in the street. Milei’s term lasts until 2027, and he clearly intends to prosecute an aggressive culture war as his strategy for dismantling social democracy in Argentina. Developments in Argentina are going to be important as the Australian far right draws inspiration from Milei and from Trump’s victory in the United States. Militant mass mobilisations are absolutely essential to the resistance.