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For seven years Mikey and I have been exploring a few pledges. We pledged to no longer make decisions based on money, to live from waste and from... Continue »

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The Good Life Lab: Radical Experiments in Hands-On Living
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Blood on the Tracks: The Life and Times of S. Brian Willson: A Psychohistorical Memoir

by S. Brian Willson

ISBN13: 9781604864212
ISBN10: 1604864214
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Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments:

After serving in the Vietnam War, S. Brian Willson became a radical, nonviolent peace protester and pacifist, and this memoir details the drastic governmental and social change he has spent his life fighting for. Chronicling his personal struggle with a government he believes to be unjust, Willson sheds light on the various incarnations of his protests of the U.S. government, including the refusal to pay taxes, public fasting, and, most famously, public obstruction. On September 1, 1987, Willson was run over by a U.S. government munitions train during a nonviolent blocking action in which he expected to be removed from the tracks. Providing a full look into the tragic event, Willson, who lost his legs in the incident, discusses how the subsequent publicity propelled his cause toward the national consciousness. Now, 23 years later, Willson tells his story of social injustice, nonviolent struggle, and the so-called American way of life.

Synopsis:

Examining the complicated and sometimes controversial history, goals, and tactics of anticapitalist movements, this compilation focuses on the meaning of the movement as a whole and examines the protests that surrounded global trade and political conferences such as the 1999 World Trade Organization meetings in Seattle and the ongoing G8 summits around the world. The collection offers a broad vision of anticapitalist activism as well as strategies for instigating change, not only for the individual, but also for the collective. Featuring popular culture references, humor, poetry, and essays, this analysis of the counter-summit movement is ideal for those wanting to explore new possibilities for mobilization in the midst of crisis.

About the Author

S. Brian Willson is a Vietnam veteran and nonviolent pacifist. He lives in Portland, Oregon. Daniel Ellsberg is a former U.S. military analyst who released the Pentagon Papers to the New York Times and other newspapers. He lives in San Francisco.

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: DavidEvans, July 22, 2011 (view all comments by DavidEvans)
BLOOD ON THE TRACKS is a compelling read. For those who are comfortable in their American middle class lives it can be discomforting at times as one views their existence through Brian Willson's critical, though gentle eyes. Connecting the dots between U.S never-ending wars and the consumer trimmings of The American Dream is painful for those of us with conscience. Blood On The Tracks induces that pain in a kind, healing way; but not without shock treatment.

From his Fourth of July birth, to high school athletic star to napalmed and machine-gunned villages in Vietnam Nicaragua, and El Salvador, to inside the American prison system, this book chronicles, like few before it, the mis-directed power of the racist and exploitative US consumer killing machine.

"Whether the crew sped up on their own accord or on orders does not matter, in the end. When the Naval command gave the order to move the train forward, the message was that the government was willing to murder us in order to protect their cargo, cars full of weapons designed to kill other people, just like us, living in distant lands." Brian writes of the day he was almost killed blocking a munitions train. "The US is so afraid of losing its grip on other countries and people, on the resources that enable our "prosperity", that it is willing to sacrifice its own people to the cause. The crew of the train were like grunts at the very end of a chain of command involved in a diabolical, criminal national policy. And we three were apparently seen as pests threatening to arouse others in the population from their slumber.
Like Mai Ly and the villagers in Vietnam, like the eleven campesinos I saw being carried to their graves in Esteli, we were in the way of empire. We had to be eliminated."

For those who believe Brian's mantra, "We are not worth more, they are not worth less." this is a must read, as this realization and the dots Brian connects for us can profoundly change our world.
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Product Details

ISBN:: 9781604864212
Author:: Willson, S. Brian
Publisher:: PM Press
Author:: Ellsberg, Daniel
Subject:: Politics - General
Subject:: Biography-Historical
Subject:: Biography - General
Subject:: Historical
Edition Description:: Trade Paper
Publication Date:: 20110831
Binding:: TRADE PAPER
Language:: English
Pages:: 500
Dimensions:: 9 x 6 in

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Biography » General
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