Organizing garment workers in Bangladesh: kinship circles and the affective dimension of activism

ABSTRACT Non-governmental organizations have become central to how workers are organized in Bangladesh’s readymade garment industry. This article explores how they integrate workers from the sector into the labour movement. Drawing on field research with three domestic, worker-focused NGOs, it asks the question: what strategies do these institutions use to engage and activate a non-organized workforce that consists predominantly of women? The strategies undertaken by these NGOs highlight the importance and integrative role of social relationships, kinship circles and the affective dimension of activism, all of which are critical for mobilizing workers not yet integrated into a broader labour movement. These strategies reveal the dynamic interaction between women workers’ collective organizing and the institutional form of the NGO.