Banners and Memes

Abstract

This article compares two waves of protests that have taken place in Poland: one related to the reform of the judicial system (2015) and the other to the decision of the Constitutional Tribunal that limited the right to abortion (2020). The analysis of banners, memes and photos documents new forms of expression of civic dissent and a generational shift in the visual rhetoric of citizenship. The analysis reveals the persistence of specific cultural and political patterns and new forms of protest resulting from different sources of collective imagination and oppositional readings of national myths and symbols. The juxtaposition of the visuals from 2015 and 2020 shows fundamental differences in using history and popular culture motifs in slogans and memes expressing the collective identity of the protesters. In 2015 conflict concerned specific legal solutions, and in 2020 displayed deep generational, gender and cultural disagreement. Concepts of social performances and deliberative democracy explain how demonstrations reflect the transformation of the Polish public sphere.