Comics for System Change: Storytelling as Resistance

by ESCR-Net

What if art could expose the forces that shape our world—and empower communities to transform it? Developed by ESCR-Net members with grassroots movements at the forefront, The Power of the 99% to Stop Corporate Capture is a radical comic series that transforms storytelling into a tool for political education and collective resistance. Each multilingual issue reveals how corporate capture operates—how corporations seize control of global decision-making spaces—while amplifying grassroots alternatives rooted in justice, care, and Indigenous knowledge.

The series has circulated in key global arenas, including COP28, COP29, the UN Binding Treaty negotiations—and now the Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development (FfD4) in Seville, a high-level UN forum where global economic rules are being contested. These comics are more than publications—they are narrative tools to disrupt colonial debt legacies, expose greenwashing, challenge false solutions, and reclaim the power to define our futures. In collaboration with comic artist Lucio Zago, ESCR-Net members illustrate how institutions like the IMF and World Bank enforce economic models that serve corporate interests at the expense of human rights, public services, and ecological integrity.

Dive into stories that connect the dots between debt, climate breakdown, and corporate power—and join a growing movement using creativity to fight for regenerative, people-led change.

Explore the complete series: escr-net.org/initiative/corporate-capture-comic-series