Down by Law: Criminalization, Solidarity, and Survival in Europe is a collaborative graphic novel by ethnographers, artists, and activists that starkly and honestly illuminates people's stories of those whose lives have been shaped by the social and political implications of criminalization across Europe.
The near-total ban on abortion in Poland, new hate speech laws across Europe, a de facto ban of sea rescue in the Mediterranean, and the criminalization of sex work. These trends toward a harsher politics of criminalization, securitization, and threat are expanding across Europe.
In eight moving, illustrated vignettes, we encounter everyday people involved in search and rescue activism, sex work, internet content-moderation, abortion activism, drug use, and more.
You will set sail with civilians who take action to save the lives of migrants at sea who face increasingly militarized borders, follow the journey of a homeless woman jailed for a bus fare she couldn't pay, examine the social complexities of disease transmission and ask: when does it become a crime? See the impact of state neglect and violence on people who use drugs in Poland, follow a migrant woman navigating the challenges of sex work policing who finds resilience in her community, and more.
These ethnographic stories not only bring to life alarming insights into criminalization across Europe but the hope and solidarity of everyday people in the face of increasing repression. The criminalized don't stay put. They adapt, resist, and survive. Their personal stories are rarely seen or heard, until now.
With contributions from Beate Binder, Agata Chelstowska, Agata Dziuban, Friederike Faust, Jérémy Geeraert, Carmen Grimm, Monique Horstmann, Juulia Kela, Todd Sekuler, Justyna Struzik, Salla Sariola, Sylvain Adam, Valerie Assmann, Bas Backer, Asia Bordowa, Florian Krynicki, H-P Lehkonen, Aleksandra 'Sasza' Stachowska, and Katarzyna Urbaniak
