2 January 2010
Kopparberg, Sweden
The last of our wonderful holiday company arrived safely in the US - after a 3 hour delay in Copenhagen that included a complimentary full body frisking, residue of the crotch bomber's antics. Julie and I are alone in our winter wonderland now.
When my husband sold his house last year, he took a 5 room apartment here at beautiful Lovnas Herrgord, owned by our friend Per Elis Johnsson. We have the ground floor of the house on the left. The apartment above us is empty, and so we had lots of space for my daughter Amy, her sweetie Jesse Dalton, my sister Kathleen, her daughter Kimberly, Kimberly's son Casey, our friend Elmar David from the Czech Republic, as well as my husband's daughter Sara and her boyfriend David, and my husband's son Jonas. We were a merry company indeed. I'd say the snow is 3 foot deep and accumulating. It's very beautiful and relaxing (for those of us not hauling the firewood!). If the landscape appears blue, it's because all the snow reflects the blue sky... It really is blue here.
As the start of a new year, hope always seems to come to me from somewhere. A fresh start. A new chance. A chance look within for creative new ways to solve personal and global problems. Another chance to do better. My 2010 resolution is to spend more time with my loved ones.
I hope some of you are planning to come to Ireland with me and that you'll let me know that - seats are filling up fast for the two wonderful tours I have planned. Read on for descriptions of the August tours of Ireland, my adventures at the Danish Climate Summit (where Julie got arrested!), getting to be in a reindeer race above the arctic circle, and details of the February tour of British Columbia, Washington, Oregon and California. Also coming up... Florida in March, and an April midwest tour with Evan Greer!
If you are one of the wonderful folks who is presenting me in BC, WA, OR, CA or FL - PLEASE go to http://annefeeney.com/calendar.html and make certain that I have our date posted correctly. Send me any corrections or additional details asap!
Heartfelt thanks to all of you - my family, friends, activist pals, fellow travelers, music lovers and troublemakers. Thanks for your good work, and for your steadfast support of my work and my music.
Happy New Year!
Anne
Ireland 2010 !!!
It's time to reserve a seat for one of the great trips I have planned for August. Each trip is better than the last - I've taken over 100 people to Ireland now and I'm really good at it! Come see one of the world's most beautiful countries and learn how the indomitable spirit and culture of the Irish people enabled them to survive 800+ years of brutal colonialism. Ireland has a rich history, gorgeous scenery, fabulous music, great activists ... and it would be my joy to introduce you to all of it. Thanks to my extremely capable Irish partner, Tom Pigott, we get to enjoy the very best of Ireland. You'll love the charming hotels that Tom finds, and marvel at how we can offer such a wonderful tour at such a reasonable price. We'll travel even the smallest byways of Ireland in Paddy Downes' luxury coach. And when Paddy's not driving, you'll find that he's a marvelous Irish step-dancer, a wry storyteller, and a very capable bodhran player. Tom Pigott is a very fine singer, and an absolute expert on the finest of Irish music - which you can hear every night of our tours.
The best part about the tours though is the pace and the people. You'll love all our traveling companions - and the days start at a reasonable hour, allow us ample time for our day's excursions, as well as naps, personal time, and time to enjoy each other's company in this extraordinary setting. You'll also get to meet some of Ireland's most interesting and engaging activists. Even the most independent-minded travellers sing the praises of our tours.
SO MUCH FOR "HOPENHAGEN"
It looked pretty obvious from the time we arrived at the Copenhagen airport (where Julie took the photo above) that the official Climate Summit was going to be a corporate affair. Inside the Bella Center, site of the official Climate Summit, the poorest nations were ostracized as the G20 met with their corporate sponsors. The G20 leaders seemed determined to gather up corporate goodies and report back that the environment is in the capable hands of Coca-Cola, Siemens, and Monsanto. There were hundreds of thousands of activists in the streets trying to keep the delegates honest. But Denmark really went berserk in anticipation of the summit ... passing fascist laws prohibiting almost anything that a cop (in his infinite discretion) might find suspicious, and allowing for mass arrests without charge and the right to detain people without charge for up to 40 days!
Many wonderful artists were there with dramatic exhibits about climate change. Greenpeace arranged for some dazzling and daring acts of banner hanging. Here is a link showing some of the best of the public art arranged during the climate summit, including the terrific tree-hugger project of my friend Wiktor Szostalo
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/starre-vartan/art-in-copenhagen-helping_b_393846.html
On December 12th Julie and David Rovics and I marched in the 100,000 strong permitted march through downtown Copenhagen. The police presence was overwhelming. When our battery-operated sound system malfunctioned, David Rovics left our group and went ahead, looking for action. He should have stayed with us.
About 3/4 of a mile into the march, as we rounded a bend, a couple hundred black-clad youngsters ran through our procession and out the other side. Within moments, we were surrounded by hundreds of police and dozens of paddy wagons and police dogs. About 1000 of us were completely isolated from the march by riot police. The march behind us was diverted around us. Only a few hundred people stayed on the outer perimeter, occasionally chanting "let them go!" For a while it appeared that the cops were attempting to cherry-pick our ranks and arrest only those they felt were possibly part of the anarchist black bloc that had, as far as I could tell, completely escaped well before the police stopped us.
As the hours dragged on, the day turned to night, and the temperature plummeted, it became increasingly clear that the cops were going to arrest us all - Belgians, French, Norwegians, Swedes, Germans and Danes - Hare Krishnas, school kids, elderly trade union activists, some puppetistas with big papier maché cows that occasionally charged the police line chanting "Mooooooooo!"
And that's what they did. The cops arrested everyone. About 700 people. As they arrested my husband, one of my Danish hosts from the Tvind progressive education movement engaged the cops in a dialog. I didn't follow the Danish argument, but apparently she told them I was a famous folksinger from the US and my arrest would cause terrible embarrassment to the Danish police. To my astonishment, the cops escorted us and the wagon on which I was to perform out of the area. There were only about 60 people left to be arrested at that point.
Those arrested were all handcuffed behind their backs and made to sit on the freezing street, sitting up with their legs apart to accommodate the person arrested after them. As the hours went by, many of those arrested ended up peeing their pants. My husband was at the back of one of those rows (luckily UPstream), with many people leaning back against him. He had no back support except for his handcuffed hands. When the cops finally came to haul him off to the pokey and instructed him to get up, he couldn't get up. The cop helped him to his feet, sized him up, and took pity on him. He undid Julie's handcuffs, escorted him to the perimeter, and even loaned Julie his cell phone so that he could let us know he hadn't been taken to the jail.
Throughout all of this I was videotaping the proceedings on my iPhone and posting it to Facebook. If you use Facebook you can still find those videos in the older posts on my profile. Technology is pretty remarkable. Friends from all over were posting advice and encouragement as we awaited arrest. Here's an indy media film of the jail solidarity march from later that evening.
Julie was interviewed by Danish mainstream television, and again by some Swedish newspapers to attest to the lawlessness of the Danish police. Denmark's growing right wing is developing their own FOX-like news - fraudcasting is a great descriptor I heard recently - What follows are translations of two Danish right wing sites with the links to the original Danish.
From Uria Posten:
"Ekstra Bladet (the Danish newspaper which reported sympathetically on the unprovoked police roundup of 1000 demonstrators) could, among other things to tell you that a poor 66-year-old painter named Haakon 'Julie 'Leonnartsson' was forced to sit on the ground for hours -- 'It was an overreaction,' he says. June Circle, which has good track of the socialist grasslands, recognizes him as the man of Ann Feeney. Feeney is a member of the relatively unknown Industrial Workers of the World, and a legend in Communist circles."
From June Circle:
"Julie Leonnartsson (sic) Is apparently just a poor '66-year-old painter' from Sweden, who 'sat on the ground for hours.' According to 'Julie,' he borrowed a phone from a Danish cop so he could call his wife, who also acted as a demonstrator. The good-hearted cop may not have done so if he had known who the woman was. Leonardsson is married with a certain Anne Feeney who, inter alia, is a member of one of the oldest terrorist organizations in the world - Industrial Workers of the World.
The marriage to Anne Feeney as such is not surprising. Håkan 'Julie' Leonardsson is even an old acquaintance from the extreme left. He has for many years agitated against society through spiteful drawings,
which [people] he considers allies called satire. In Denmark he is hailed especially by the Stalin-worshippers in Workers' Communist Party (known for its violent convicted member Lars Grenaa)."
The Climate Summit adjourned with no progress - in large part due to the US and Canada's intransigence.
This Greenpeace billboard at the Copenhagen airport says it all.
Holidays at the Top of the World
Since I started coming to Sweden in 1994 I have dreamed of a trip to the Arctic Circle. Even though we are three hours north of Stockholm here, it's still a three hour drive east and a fourteen hour train ride north to Kiruna from here. When my sister and my niece decided to come to Sweden for Christmas this year, we decided this was the moment. Julie and I, my daughter Amy and her boyfriend Jesse, and my sister Kathleen, my niece Kimberly and Kimberly's son Casey boarded the all night train to Kiruna at 8PM on December 20th. We played Scrabble, sang songs, hung out in the club car and finally slept before arriving in Kiruna at 10AM on the 21st. We checked into our sweet little hotel and set out to explore Kiruna.
That afternoon we took a cab out to Jukkasjärvi, home of the Ice Hotel. This place is built from scratch every year in November and melts away in the spring. Each year different artists design the "art suites" at the hotel. Here are some photos from the ice hotel...
Certainly the highligh of this adventure for me was the special tour that my niece Kimberly and my sister Kathleen arranged for me the next day. Julie, Kimberly, Casey and I got a snowmobile tour across a frozen lake and through the woods to a reindeer corral. There our Saami guide Jonas taught us how to lasso our own reindeer. Then he hitched the reindeer to a sleigh and we got to have reindeer races around a 500 m course. My sister thinks this is the funniest video she's ever seen. It's not as easy as you might think to film yourself while racing a reindeer... that's all I can say about that.
FEBRUARY ON THE LEFT COAST!
My left coast tour is shaping up well but I could sure use some help on some of these dates. I fly into Seattle on February 4th.
I'd love to play Tacoma on February 5th... whaddya say, Tacoma?
Saturday, February 6th - Bellingham, WA
SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 7th - HELP!! Tacoma, Port Townsend, Port Angeles, Seattle, Orcas?
MONDAY, FEBRUARY 8th - HELP!! Spokane, Port Townsend, Port Angeles, Seattle, Orcas?
Tuesday, February 9th - Vancouver, BC
Wednesday, February 10th - Victoria, BC
Thursday, February 11th - Courtenay, BC
Friday, February 12th - Sydney, BC
Saturday, February 13th -Vancouver, BC
SUNDAY, FEB 14th - HELP!! Seattle, Port Townsend, Port Angeles, Spokane?
Monday, February 15th - West Seattle
Tuesday, February 16th - Olympia, WA
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 17th - HELP!! Vancouver, WA, Astoria, Goble, Chehalis, Corvallis, Eugene?
Thursday, February 18th - Portland, OR
Friday, February 19th - Coos Bay, OR
Saturday, February 20th - Ashland, OR
Sunday, February 21st - Reno, NV
Monday, February 22nd - Sacramento, CA
Tuesday, February 23rd - Redwood City, CA
Wednesday, February 24th - Santa Cruz, CA
Thursday, February 25th - Berkeley, CA
Friday, February 26th - Walnut Creek, CA
Saturday, February 27th - Atascadero, CA
I fly out of LAX on March 2nd...
HELP with anything in between for FEB 28th and MARCH 1st
And I could use more details from most of my presenters. Could all you wonderful folks who are hosting/presenting me please visit http://annefeeney.com/calendar.html and make sure I have all the details and that they are correct? THANKS!!
FLORIDA IN MARCH!!
Oh yeah! I look forward to this so much every year. I still have a lot of open dates for March. Please check the calendar at http://annefeeney.com/calendar.html -- If you'd like to see me perform in your town, we'll figure out a way to make it happen. Email me at anne@annefeeney.com and I'll get right back to you.
FAMILY NEWS
Birthdays:
January 8th - Lauren Grefenstette, January 10th - Jesse Dalton, January 16th - Blanka Engstrom, Jim Marks, Chris Chandler and Shannon Metcalfe, January 23rd - Shelley Kessler, January 27th - Tom Weldon, January 29th - Art Deckard and Ed McCahill, January 30th - Bob Barnes, January 31st - Maryellen Hayden
January 8th - Lauren Grefenstette, January 10th - Jesse Dalton, January 16th - Blanka Engstrom, Jim Marks, Chris Chandler and Shannon Metcalfe, January 23rd - Shelley Kessler, January 27th - Tom Weldon, January 29th - Art Deckard and Ed McCahill, January 30th - Bob Barnes, January 31st - Maryellen Hayden
(Watch this space for big family news next month!)
On January 11th I'm going to Ecuador to visit my son Daniel and his wonderful wife, Monique Murad. You can call me in Ecuador on my son's vonage phone - 626-381-9828 (CST)
I was saddened to hear that Dennis Brutus died in Capetown on December 26th. What an extraordinary person, and what an amazing life he led. If you're unfamiliar with him, there's a great page about him on Wikipedia. We in Pittsburgh were lucky to have his company for so long.
Well, that's it! Here's to lots of hellraising together in 2010!
Much love
Anne
Anne
-
Anne's tour calendar feed
2 comments:
Anne, what a way to end the year, poor Julie married to the commie and IWW terrorist.
I like the term "Fraudcast" one I will be using in 2010.
I can't remember who it was but Amy Goodman was interviewing someone on the meaning of the large street protest in Iran and asked did this mean the end of the current government? The answer I think has meaning for us here in the USA. That was that the demonstrations will not alter the government, at least not until the Unions, the workers join the demonstrators in the streets with a General Strike. It is what I have been saying here in the USA for way too many years. Even when we have millions in the streets the ruling elites and the congressional prostitutes lie with the dogs of war and oppression. It will take a number of General Strikes by Union members, and if their leadership will not call for it the workers need to do it for themselves. That is the true spirit of the IWW and that is why they want to paint you as a terrorist organization. They don't fear terrorist acts they fear General Strikes.
Keep On Hellraising
Peace
Dan Shea
Damn, Feeney,if I had known you were an IWW terorist I would never have performed with you for single payer health care. You're the model for the Carole King song, "doesn't anyone stay in one place anymore?"
Love,
Dick Weissman
Post a Comment