View source for PORA

{{more footnotes|date=February 2008}}
{{Infobox organization
| name                     = PORA
| formation                = {{start year and age|2004}}
| native_name              = Пора!
| logo                     = Pora.png
| formerly                 = Oberih
| type                     = Civic youth organization and [[political party]]
| headquarters             = [[Kyiv]], [[Ukraine]]
| region                   = [[Ukraine]]
| membership               = 10,000 (2004)
}}
{{Politics of Ukraine}}
'''Pora!''' ({{langx|uk|Пора!}}), meaning ''"It's time!"'' in [[Ukrainian language|Ukrainian]], is a civic youth organization (Black Pora!) and political party in [[Ukraine]] ([[PORA#The political party|Yellow Pora!]]) espousing [[nonviolent resistance]] and advocating increased national [[democracy]]. The group was established in 2004 (as only a civic youth organization) to coordinate young people's opposition to the Kuchma government in opposition to what they claimed was the [[authoritarianism|authoritarian]] governing style of Ukraine's president [[Leonid Kuchma]]. After the [[Orange Revolution]] Pora! split up in two different entities, Black Pora! (since 2006 OPORA) and Yellow Pora!

==The civic youth organization==
Pora! was inspired and partly trained by members of the [[Serbia]]n [[Otpor!|Otpor]] movement which helped bring down President [[Slobodan Milošević]], and is also allied to related movements throughout [[Eastern Europe]], including [[Kmara]] in the republic of [[Georgia (country)|Georgia]] (itself partly responsible for the downfall of President [[Eduard Shevardnadze]]), [[Zubr (political organization)|Zubr]] in [[Belarus]] (opposing President [[Alexander Lukashenko]]), [[Oborona]] in [[Russia]], and [[MJAFT!]] in [[Albania]].

According to Pora! has never received U.S. funding and that while 10 members traveled to Serbia in the spring of 2004 and met with Otpor leaders at a seminar in the city of [[Novi Sad]], they paid for themselves.

Prior to the [[2004 Ukrainian presidential election|2004 presidential election]], pro-democracy movements such as Pora! had created political networks throughout Ukraine, including 150 groups responsible for spreading information and coordinating election monitoring, 72 regional centers, and 30,000 registered participants. This allowed Pora! to mobilize protesters after widespread reports of electoral fraud.<ref>[[Thomas Kalil|Kalil, Thomas]]. (2008) Harnessing the Mobile Revolution. The New Policy Institute. Pg 14</ref>

Pora! supported [[Viktor Yushchenko]] in [[protest]]s following the disputed 2004 presidential election. It claimed to have about 10,000 members. Its methods have apparently been influenced by [[Gene Sharp]]'s manual ''[[From Dictatorship to Democracy]]''. Apart from the mass demonstrations of the "[[Orange Revolution]]", the group's tactics have included the use of visually striking posters showing confrontational images such as a giant boot crushing a cockroach, and stickers with "revolutionary" slogans such as "Time to Arise!". Not surprisingly, this has aroused the ire of the Ukrainian authorities and Pora! activists have often been harassed and arrested. Pora! activists were arrested in October 2004, but the release of many (on what was reported [[President of Ukraine|President]] [[Leonid Kuchma]]'s personal order) gave growing confidence to the opposition.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=BxOQKrCe7UUC&pg=PA345 Civil Resistance and Power Politics: The Experience of Non-violent Action from Gandhi to the Present] edited by Adam Roberts and Timothy Garton Ash, [[Oxford University Press]], 2009, {{ISBN|978-0-19-955201-6}} (page 345)</ref> Pora! was seen as being on the radical wing of the reform movement.

==The split==
After the success of the [[Orange Revolution]] in defeating election fraud, from early 2005 Pora formally split into two branches with different goals for the future.<ref name=JTFsplitP>[http://www.jamestown.org/single/?no_cache=1&tx_ttnews%5Btt_news%5D=27471 PORA! TAKES TWO DIFFERENT PATHS], [[The Jamestown Foundation]] (1 February 2005></ref> The difference, however, always existed without being publicly known, between the original Black Pora! - a student movement associated with civic resistance and anti-[[Kuchma]] campaigns and the Yellow Pora! – organized by a group of politicians more closely connected to oppositional parties in the Parliament – such as Nasha Ukraina ([[Our Ukraine (political party)|Our Ukraine]]) of [[Viktor Yuschenko]] and PRP ([[Reforms and Order Party]]).<ref name=JTFsplitP/>

[[PORA#The political party|Yellow Pora]] stated in January 2005 it focused on spreading its "revolution" to other countries, particularly [[Belarus]] and [[Russia]].<ref name=TJFYPexpOR/> A [[PORA (Russian youth group)|Russian wing of Yellow PORA]] was created in December 2004 in order to harness the experience of successful democratic revolutions in Serbia, Georgia, and Ukraine (pora.org.ru).<ref name=TJFYPexpOR>[http://www.jamestown.org/single/?no_cache=1&tx_ttnews%5Btt_news%5D=27717 BEREZOVSKY HOPES TO SELL ORANGE REVOLUTION TO RUSSIA], [[The Jamestown Foundation]] (17 March 2005)</ref>

==The political party==
Now Yellow Pora! is a Ukrainian political party registered on March 23, 2005.<ref name=DATA>{{in lang|uk}} [http://www.da-ta.com.ua/mon_mainnews/916.htm Громадянська партія “Пора”], Database DATA</ref> Yellow Pora was united with [[Party Reform and Order]] and founded bloc PRP-PORA for the [[2006 Ukrainian parliamentary election|parliamentary elections 2006]].<ref name=DATA/> [[Vitali Klitschko]] was the head of this political bloc. At the parliamentary elections on 26 March 2006, this alliance won 1,47% of the popular vote and no seats.<ref name=DATA/><ref>[https://www.unian.info/politics/5094-kaskiv-is-not-pora-front-runner-any-more.html Kaskiv is not Pora front-runner any more], [[UNIAN]] (18 May 2006)</ref> The alliance was disbanded after the election when the parties became members of different [[electoral alliance]]s.

In the [[2007 Ukrainian parliamentary election|parliamentary elections]] on 30 September 2007, the party was part of the [[Our Ukraine–People's Self-Defense Bloc]] alliance,<ref name=DATA/> which won 72 out of 450 seats.

In the [[2010 Ukrainian local elections|2010 local elections]] the party biggest achievement was winning 3 seats in the [[Lviv City Council]].<ref>{{in lang|uk}} [http://www.pravda.com.ua/articles/2010/11/8/5552584/ Results of the elections, preliminary data, on interactive maps] by [[Ukrayinska Pravda]] (November 8, 2010)</ref>

The party did not participate in the [[2012 Ukrainian parliamentary election|2012 parliamentary elections]].<ref>{{in lang|uk}} [http://www.cvk.gov.ua/pls/vnd2012/wp039?PT001F01=900 Results of voting in single constituencies in 2012] & [http://www.cvk.gov.ua/pls/vnd2012/wp400?PT001F01=900 Nationwide list], [[Central Election Commission of Ukraine]]</ref> And again did not participate in the [[2014 Ukrainian parliamentary election]].<ref>[http://www.cvk.gov.ua/pls/vnd2014/wp501e?PT001F01=910 Alphabetical Index of parties in 2014 Ukrainian parliamentary election], [[Central Election Commission of Ukraine]]</ref>

In December 2022 the party was renamed "Oberih" ({{langx|uk|Оберіг}}).<ref>{{in lang|uk}} [https://www.chesno.org/post/5766/ How many parties were renamed during the war?], [[Civil movement "Chesno"]] (1 November 2023)</ref>

==OPORA==
Black Pora, functions mainly as a pro-democracy watchdog trying to clean Ukraine of 'Kuchmism' (i.e. the legacy of the former authoritarian President [[Leonid Kuchma]]) and does not see the possibility of exporting its experience to other countries. Black Pora! remains a non-partisan movement and has formally registered as an NGO - All-Ukrainian Civic Organization Pora! Part of its public campaigns – such as the one aimed at pressuring major political parties to clean their electoral lists of notorious personalities – connected to the old regime or having criminal background. Around the [[2006 Ukrainian parliamentary election|March 2006 Parliamentary elections]] Black Pora changed its name to '''OPORA''' (Foundation) ({{langx|uk|ОПОРА}}, [[Russian language|Russian]]: ОПОРА).<ref name="Minnesota">[http://conservancy.umn.edu/bitstream/91521/1/Shyyan_Vitaliy%20Sept%202008.pdf DEMOCRACY IN UKRAINE AFTER THE ORANGE REVOLUTION] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100716075251/http://conservancy.umn.edu/bitstream/91521/1/Shyyan_Vitaliy%20Sept%202008.pdf|date=2010-07-16}} by [[Vitaliy Shyyan]], [[University of Minnesota]] (September 2008)</ref>

==See also==
*[[Vidsich]]
*[[Nonviolence]]
*[[Nonviolent Resistance]]
*[[Liberalism]]
*[[Contributions to liberal theory]]
*[[Liberalism worldwide]]
*[[List of liberal parties]]
*[[Liberal democracy]]
*[[Liberalism in Ukraine]]
*[[Liberal revolutionary movements in post-communist Eastern Europe]]
*[[2006 Ukrainian parliamentary election]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
*[http://oporaua.org/en OPORA (former Black Pora) official website]
*{{in lang|uk}} [https://web.archive.org/web/20121222011009/http://pora.ua/ Yellow Pora] official website
{{Ukrainian Political Parties}}
{{Kyiv local political parties}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pora}}
[[Category:Youth wings of political parties]]
[[Category:Nonviolent resistance movements]]
[[Category:Youth organizations based in Ukraine]]
[[Category:Liberal parties in Ukraine]]
[[Category:Political parties established in 2005]]
[[Category:Orange Revolution]]
[[Category:Ukrainian democracy movements]]