Solidarność from Gdańsk in 1980 to Calgary in 2022: political remitting and glocalization of symbols across time and space

This article brings together two very different political organizations: Poland’s Solidarność established in 1980 and the Solidarity Movement of Alberta created in 2022 by Artur Pawlowski, a far-right pastor who claims inspiration from the Polish trade union. The differences between the two organizations embody some fundamental changes that have shaped politics in the last half-century, and we take a bird-eye view of them to shed light on recent developments on the far right, including the increasingly mythopoeic nature of its ideology and its rhizomatic forms of organization. The case of Pawlowski, a Polish Canadian, brings into focus ideational – albeit also highly monetizable – remittances in the form of symbols and myths that circulate transnationally. We identify processes behind transnational remitting, adaptation and glocalization of ideas and highlight the role of minority and migrant activists involved in their transmission.