Who Counts as a “Worthy” Activist in Global Civil Society?

• In Event: Poster Session: Comparative Politics II & State Politics and Policy
  In Poster Session: Poster Session: Comparative Politics II

Abstract

Why does global civil society recognize the value of some civil society activists and not others? This paper investigates women’s collective resistance during internal armed conflicts in which significant women’s groups mobilized through their identities as mothers of the disappeared. Using the comparative case study method, I explore the politics of memory around mothers’ groups in two internal conflicts, Argentina’s period of state terrorism (1976-1983) and Sri Lanka’s Civil War (1983-2009). While Argentina’s Madres of the Plaza de Mayo remain quintessential figures of human rights both in Argentina and globally, a similar group in Sri Lanka, known as the Mothers’ Front, has been largely forgotten. Even as the gendered form of mobilization political motherhood has sustained the Madres of the Plaza de Mayo’s activism since 1977, the early demise of the Mothers’ Front, active only 7 years, was blamed for its reliance of political motherhood. However, I argue that the embedded values of the global North within global civil society, notably embedded Christianity, has meant that only certain activists are deemed worthy of transnational support. This paper highlights the power of global civil society to shape the narrative on social movement activism in questionable ways, which ultimately made invisible Sri Lankan mothers of the disappeared, who fell outside of Christian-identified values.

Author

• Crystal Whetstone, University of Cincinnati