Paper short abstract:

Based on the fieldwork in Prague, the paper shares the story of a Ukrainian initiative and local activists who work together on contentious acts against authoritarian regimes and far-right movements, elucidating the (dis)empowering transformations that the actors experience through joint actions.

Paper long abstract:

Since the first days of the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, many residents of European cities and rural areas have shown unprecedented solidarity with people displaced by the war. Central and Eastern European neighbours welcomed families from Ukraine into their homes, helped by providing humanitarian assistance, and showed their solidarity through political activism. Based on the ethnographic fieldwork conducted in Prague, this paper focuses on the lived experiences of members of a newly emerged Ukrainian political initiative and the actors in solidarity with them. Their story of joint political actions has illustrated that, in addition to compassion and sensitivity to the vulnerabilities of others, political solidarity with migrants and displaced people is also deeply rooted in cooperation based on mutual trust, shared goals, and compromises in choosing how to achieve these goals. Looking at political solidarity as a synergetic effort between people from Ukraine and activists from the host society highlights the agency of migrants and displaced persons, who are regarded as partners, instead of being helped or rescued. Furthermore, conceptualizing solidarity as synergetic cooperation can better elucidate the complexity of power relations, especially since the joint actions of those considered “locals” and those taken as “foreigners” are inherently charged with empowering and disempowering dynamics. Bringing together critical citizenship and social movement studies, this paper highlights the (dis)empowering transformations that the new Ukrainian political initiative and Czech activists experience through their joint contentious acts against authoritarian regimes and the national far-right movement.