ABSTRACT
This chapter seeks to depict what increasing inter-ethnic networking could do to change attitudes and misunderstandings, and it does so by focusing on an initiative by a grassroots activist organization in Sri Lanka to build gendered interethnic networks. The NGO, called Dabindu, is dedicated to improving labor and human rights conditions among global garment factory workers in Free Trade Zones (FTZs). As part of an initiative called “Exposure program” (Niravarana), however, it organized a meeting between Sinhala garment factory workers and Tamil tea estate workers. The profound change in attitude that overcame both groups of women belonging to different ethnic groups was tremendous and bode extremely well for a future where marginalized women could play a greater role in promoting peace within their respective communities. However, soon after this event the grassroots organization fragmented, undermining the attempt to promote inter-ethnic solidarity among female workers. This chapter thus discusses both the potential NGOs have when coordinating civil society participation and the problems faced when grassroots organizations connect with transnational networks and inadvertently lead people into despair and hopelessness. Based on long-term ethnographic field research and interviews with Dabindu activists who organised the activity, several participants and several non-participant garment factory workers, I show that the conditions for peacebuilding through gendered civil society participation are ripe, although certain characteristics pertaining to Sri Lanka’s current civil society activities discourages women from marginalized groups from initiating or participating in civil society.
