FELLOW TRAVELERS' ADVISORY FROM ANNE FEENEY - VOLUME ONE, #6 - SEPTEMBER 2005

Thanks for your support of my music. I sure couldn't do it without you. Please forward this on to anyone you think might like my music. As always, you can order my music at CDBaby. I've also made a gallery of some of my favorite CDBaby artists - Check it out!

In this issue:
LABOR DAY 2005
PITTSBURGH POLICE RIOT & BAKERS AGAINST BRUTALITY
SOMETHING IN THE AIR
HELD OUT OF SERVICE WITHOUT PAY AT UAL
TINY GRAIN OF SAND - NEW FILM FROM JILL FRIEDBERG
A WORD FROM OUR SPONSORS
DOWNLOAD MUSIC
CHARIOTS OF FIRE
FAMILY NEWS
CALENDAR

My immediate destinations are: Philadelphia; Meredosia, IL; Central and Northeastern PA; Western MA; St. Louis; Indianapolis; Kansas City; Des Moines; Madison, WI; Springfield, IL; 3 dates in Michigan; Louisville & Lexington, Kentucky; Terre Haute, IN; Jacksonville & Tallahassee FL; Fort Benning, GA. I hope to see you at one of these places!

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LABOR DAY 2005

It's a war on the workers all right. This Labor Day I'll be joining the locked out workers of Boilermakers' Local 484 in Meredosia, IL. When they refused a 33% wage cut in June, these workers were locked out by the fabulously profitable multinational Celanese Corporation. They are being terrorized by Special Response Corporation based in Hunt Valley, MD. (I wonder if the nice people of Hunt Valley know what creepy corporate neighbors they have? they've got every union in their sights, too... check out this page!

Meredosia, IL is now an armed camp police state, with workers and their families subjected to surveillance and intimidation.
Donate to these brave workers online ... or

To donate in person or by mail, please visit or send donations to:

Boilermakers Local 484 Solidarity/Defense Fund
P.O. Box258
300 Main Street
Meredosia, IL 62665

Meredosia is about 90 minutes from St Louis, 3 1/2 hours from Chicago, an hour from Springfield... Let's have a road warriors' reunion there this Labor Day and show some real solidarity.

If that's impossible for you, try this -- Celanese runs an ethics hotline (really) - Call 1.866.384.4223 and tell them that Meredosia could be another Bhopal if they don't get those inexperienced untrained scabs out of the plant. Tell them to call off their SRC goons. Tell them to negotiate in good faith with Boilermakers' Local 484. I called and a personable woman interviewed me and wrote down everything I said.

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PITTSBURGH POLICE RIOT

"I was taken to the ground by a police officer during that time
I was pepper sprayed. The officer picked up my glasses, sprayed my face
with the pepper spray. Once I got to the ground I was then tasered in
the thigh for what felt like an eternity. It was the most excruciating
pain I have ever felt. I felt like I was burning. My hand reached
down to feel what was on my leg and I felt an electrical shock running
through my entire body. I could not stop myself from screaming. It was
horrifying. I could not believe that after I had already been sprayed
and on the ground they would then proceed to taser me."

-- Merton Center intern and activist, Deanna Caligiuri,
who was hospitalized following this attack.

That was the scene in my hometown, Pittsburgh, PA on August 20th as a couple dozen friends of mine shut down an army recruiting center in Oakland, where the University of Pittsburgh is located. You can see the shocking video of the police riot at the Pittsburgh Indymedia site. Many of you (all of you, I hope) heard this story on Democracy Now! (did you know you can stream DN online any time day or night??)

This past Saturday, August 27, we called for another demonstration against the war, against military recruitment, and against police violence and repression of civil liberties. Approximately 100 of us gathered with signs, peace flags (thanks, paul!) and songs. The recruitment center remained open, but no one went in! The highlight of the demonstration for me was "Bakers against Brutality." My pal Matt Toups wore a long white baker's apron & brought a box of doughnuts with a sign that said, "COPS - Don't Shoot! FREE DONUTS!" Other signs said "Pastries, Not Pepper Spray!" and "Pastries for Peaceful Police" -- They chanted "Whose Treats? Your Treats!" See the photo - Abby Hoffman presente!

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SOMETHING IN THE AIR

Chandler's on a roll. Check out his amazing DVD There's Something in the Air (But It's Not on the Airwaves)

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HELD OUT OF SERVICE WITHOUT PAY

The lyrics I wrote for the machinists and flight attendants at United Airlines were selected as the Labor Notes Song of the Month. Click here for the whole story, or here to listen to the song. Many of you have heard me talk about debuting this song at O'Hare Airport in Chicago on May 14th (the day I sang the song up and down the concourse). Unbelievably, two of my machinist companeras were "held out of service without pay" on August 11 by United Airlines because they uh "refused a direct order of a supervisor." The direct order??? "Make her stop singing!"

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TINY GRAIN OF SAND

Filmmaker Jill Freidberg, (This is What Democracy Looks Like) recently completed a new documentary film and is organizing screenings around the US. "Granito de Arena" is the inspiring and unsettling story of the Mexican teachers' movement and their grassroots struggle to defend public education from the devastating impacts of economic globalization. Freidberg spent almost two years in southern Mexico documenting the strikes, marches, and direct actions of over 100,000 teachers, parents, and students fighting the privatization of Mexico's public schools. Featuring Eduardo Galeano and Maude Barlow!

"Important...disturbing...Anyone concerned about education, human rights, labor unions, Latin America and globalization will want to see this inspiring film."
Mexican Labor News and Analysis

Distribution begins with a mid-west tour this September! To bring the film to your town or to buy the DVD, visit the website or contact info@corrugate.org.

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SAVE THE BISCUIT

You may have seen the story about how the Forest Service 'goofed' and allowed loggers into the Babyfoot Lake Botanical Sanctuary in Siskiyou -- Well, here are some pictures that are worth 1000 words. Several of my friends were arrested defending this forest from loggers.

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A WORD FROM OUR SPONSORS

This Labor Day send the perfect little thank you to the working class hero in your life -- Union Maid -- 23 songs about unions and working life, guaranteed to fire you up - "War on the Workers," "Which Side Are You On?" "Solidarity Forever" "Whatever Happened to the Eight Hour Day?" "We Just Come to Work Here, We Don't Come to Die" and more! on CDBaby or the Labor Heritage Foundation.

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DOWNLOAD MUSIC

Here's a list of online outlets that are carrying my music for legal digital download to your Ipod or MP3 Player........

Apple iTunes * Bitmunk * Etherstream * MSN Music * MusicMatch * MP3tunes * Rhapsody * LoudEye * MusicNow * MusicNet * Sony Connect * NetMusic * BuyMusic * PassAlong * Chondo

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CHARIOTS OF FIRE

My longtime friends will be flabbergasted to know that I ran a 5K Race a couple weeks ago. It was 94 degrees and very humid. The course was quite challenging (as most Pittsburgh courses are... lots of hills). This was my first race... well, actually my second, but the first one was a 3K race in 1975. (and I wasn't able to finish that one!) This time it took me 42 minutes, and I finished dead last, but I finished! When I fell 1/3 mile away from the finish line, the Edgewood Police car offered me a ride to the finish line. But I opted to run it, skinned knees and all...

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FAMILY NEWS

Thank goodness my sister Kate escaped with only minor injuries when she was thrown from her brand new Harley Davidson motorcycle in Sturgis, SD! She's at home in New Jersey recovering from a broken ankle and some road rash.

My cousin Peggy McCahill Duncan just had triplets!

My cousin Karen McCahill just performed at Davies Hall in San Francisco!

Bill Feeney and I went to see "Broken Flowers" on Wednesday - great film.

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CALENDAR - Click here

Bakers Against Brutality

Thanks to quick thinking by Bakers Against Brutality, another police riot was avoided. The bakers fearlessly chanted to the police, "Whose treats? Your treats!" Anyone agreeing not to use a taser or pepper spray on peaceful protesters was allowed to have a donut.

Triplet cousins!

Here they are! My cousin Peggy McCahill Duncan delivered these gorgeous babies last month while I was out on my West coast tour - John Duncan is the proud papa and Connor is official big brother. Mazel tov! Here's what Grandma Mardy says: "It honestly takes two adults on their feet 24/7, to feed, tend, and do all the preparations. Jim (Grandpa) has been very busy also, doing a lot with the babies, and also doing nearly all of the cooking, most shopping, & running errands for both households. It's funny, when one of the babies went for a doctor's appointment, it was just so easy taking care of 'only' two of them - twins would be a piece of cake, & three is indeed a major event!" Congratulations to all!

Karen at Davies Hall!

Sixth from the right in the third row up is my cousin Karen McCahill, singing Carmina Burana! Mazel tov!

The Seattle Times: Local News: Forest Service admits "serious" mistake in logging reserve

Looks like my friends who were arrested trying to stop the logging in "The Biscuit" of southern Oregon were right. Today's Seattle Times reveals that the loggers completely disregarded public policy and invaded a rare tree reserve. Let the forest defenders back into Siskiyou! Siskiyou Project counted 290 stumps inside the botanical area, including one that measured three feet in diameter that was 234 years old, said Ullian.

The Babyfoot Lake Botanical Area was established by the Forest Service in 1963 to protect Brewer spruce (Picea breweriana), a rare, ancient conifer tree that have existed in the area since before the last Ice Age. Brewer's spruce are among the rarest conifers in North America, and were the last to be discovered and described by western science on the continent. The Babyfoot Lake Botanical Area was also created to protect other sensitive endemic plants such as the Tracy's desert parsley (Lupinus tracyi) and Purdy's Lewisia (Lewisia cotyledon ssp. purdyi). Botanists come from around the world to visit the Botanical Area.

Lots more info at the Siskiyou Project's Website.

Shut 'Cha Down! - Labor Notes - Song Of The Month

This ought to be against the law!

I'm thrilled to report that my little parody slamming Glen Tilton is now the Labor Notes - Song Of The Month

Shut 'Cha Down


Anne Feeney, on receipt of Labor Heritage Foundation's 2005 Joe Hill award, introduced the song this way:

I was just at the Regina Polk union women's leadership conference in Chicago where fully a third of the women attending worked for United Airlines.


I don't how many of you followed what went on, but most of them had put $60,000 to $100,000 of their salary into the employee stock option plan, and when United's stock became worthless they said "Well at least we have the wonderful pension that the union has negotiated for us."

And while we were at this conference the federal bankruptcy court set aside United's pension obligations and funneled it all over to the PBGC [Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation].

And at the same time Glenn Tilton the obnoxious CEO -- there are no words to describe this man -- well maybe there's one -- anyway he was awarded a $450 million guaranteed pension in rocognition of his resolute handling of this crisis.

So this was the biggest hit on Concourse C at O'Hare after the conference. We went from counter to counter singing this.

Actually, Anne was off by a couple of decimal points. Tilton's guaranteed pension is only $4.5 million. Still, when compared to the average United employee's guaranteed pension through PBGC, he is flying high.

Personnel: Anne Feeney, lead vocal, guitar; Steve Jones, piano; Rafael Herrera, Pam Parker, Janet Stecher, harmony vocals