(Self-)organizing and organization in Polish civil society volunteers' Ukraine Action 2022-2023

The Russian invasion of Ukraine caused a massive movement of people, with millions crossing the border into Poland. Neither the Polish government nor international humanitarian organisations had prepared for such exodus, which placed civil society volunteers in the key role as aid providers at refugees’ arrival points. The article asks how it was possible for volunteers to deliver emergency aid on such a massive scale, using the ‘Ukraine Action’ organized by the Polish scout and guide movement as an illustrative case. Through experiences conveyed in ethnographic interviews with ten volunteers from the Krakow region, the authors trace the development of the scouts’ humanitarian action from individuals’ self-organising in the early phase to the implementation of structures such as task division and teams and later professionalization, in the form of the ‘UAct’ partnership established with UNICEF in April 2022. It is argued that the key to the scouts’ success is the intersection of social movement activism and civil society organisation, enabling swift and effective mobilization in the early stage, followed by the organizational structuring necessary to extend action beyond the first month of war.