Co-Sponsored by Greenpeace

Early September morning in 2013 thirty men and women from eighteen countries—the crew of Greenpeace’s Arctic Sunrise—decide to draw a line in the ice and protest the drilling in the Arctic. Thrown together by a common cause, they are determined to stop Vladmir Putin and the oligarchs. But their protest is met with brutal force as Putin’s commandos seize the Arctic Sunrise. Held under armed guard by masked men, they are charged with piracy and face fifteen years in Russia’s nightmarish prison system.

In Don't Trust, Don't Fear, Don't Beg, Ben Stewart—a key member of the campaign to release the Arctic 30—tells an astonishing tale of passion, courage, brutality, and survival. With wit, verve, and candor, he chronicles the extraordinary friendships the activists made with their often murderous cellmates, their battle to outwit the prison guards, and the struggle to stay true to the cause that brought them there.

Ben Stewart is a former Guardian Student Journalist of the Year, and is now head of media at Greenpeace. He was one of the six protesters cleared of criminal damage to Kingsnorth power station in a groundbreaking trial, whose verdict the New York Times described as one of the seminal moments of 2008.