Reviews
Beat the Heat: How to Handle Encounters with Law Enforcement + Rising Sun: A Field Guide to the Eastern Uprisings + Earth First! Journal

Beat the Heat: How to Handle Encounters with Law Enforcement by Katya Komisaruk. Illustrated by Tim Maloney. AK Press, 2003

reviewed by MaxZine

I was impressed by attorney Katya Komisaruk at the San Francisco Anarchist Book Fair when she came to the podium to speak and said she did not want to give a lecture but preferred to simply answer questions about run-ins with the law. Her conviction to help arm people with an understanding of simple ways to use what rights we have to defend ourselves against the encroaching police state shines through in Beat the Heat: How to Handle Encounters with Law Enforcement.

I anticipated a rather dry read about legal matters. Instead, Beat the Heat is fun: the book presents issues largely through comic strips, demonstrating through fictitious and real cases how telling the cops “I’m going to remain silent and I would like to see a lawyer” affords an incredible amount of protection.

Too many people get harassed, humiliated and hung by the system. The basic legal understanding imparted by Beat the Heat can help keep you on the streets instead of landing in jail. Read it before you find yourself in an encounter with the police.

Rising Sun: A Field Guide to the Eastern Uprisings — A Collection of Happenings and Places in Eastern North America, 2004.

reviewed by Tequila Mockingbird

This nifty little ‘zine includes a calendar of events, travel tips, lists of eastern communities, collectives, “purty places,” and other projects. Modeled after a “field guide,” it should provide the traveling activist with some basic information on where to get food, where to camp, and where to raise hell. With all the ruckus happening in the east this year, the ad hoc Rising Sun collective decided to produce a zine that would attract folks and help folks get oriented to all the great events and places that exist in the eastern half of North America. To obtain a copy, send an email to efactivist@yahoo.com or wildrootsnc@ziplip.com or send some money to PO Box 281 Chattanooga, TN 37401 or PO Box 1485 Asheville, NC 28802.

Earth First! Journal

reviewed by Tequila Mockingbird

The latest issue of the EF! Journal (Beltane May-June ’04) contains some excellent articles: Biotech, Arizona Hunt Sabs, and the Buffalo Field Campaign. There’s a piece by Free as we approach an international day of action on his behalf. The critical assessment of the Ruckus Society shows how far the radical environmental movement has evolved past its macho, genderist roots. It also contains great coverage of the government crackdown on the ELF and other radicals. The Journal is always worth it. Subscriptions are $25 a year for 6 issues and can be had from EF! J., Daily Planet Publishing, P.O. Box 3023, Tucson, AZ 85702, 520- 620–6900. http://earthfirstjournal.org/