The Workers' Memorial Day observances that I participated in yesterday were really moving. We gathered at Market Square at noon. Mike Stout and the Human Union did some driving rock 'n roll indictments of Halliburton, Harkin, Worldcom, Bush & Cheney before the ceremony began. Charlie McCollester skillfully coordinated the event. Donna Spadaro spoke with great passion about her brother, who was killed on his first day at work. After a stunning rendition of the national anthem, the names of Allegheny County workers who died at work in the past year were read, and a beautiful bell was rung.

My pal Tony Slomkoski and I grabbed lunch before heading to the four o'clock dedication at the memorial to the 180 Harwick miners who perished on May 30, 1904 ... I sang Hazel Dickens' song about the Mannington Mine disaster and Ed Yankovich, director of UMWA District 2, read the miners' burial prayer from the UMWA constitution --- I wonder if any other union has a burial prayer as part of its constitution and bylaws?

From there we went to the Springdale Fire Hall where I sang a selection of labor songs before the Workers' Memorial Day banquet. About 70 people attended and got to hear an amazing presentation by Sean, a boilermaker who was seriously injured in an explosion when he was only 3 months on the job. He sustained third degree burns over 65% of his body when he was only 19 -- a co-worker was killed.

So many of these tragic "accidents" are not accidents at all -- the result of speed-ups, inadequate training and improper equipment ... totally preventable... Work safe, sisters and brothers! And thanks to Charlie McCollester, Joe Clark, Tony Slomkoski, Don Faulkner and everyone who worked so hard to make the day moving and memorable.

I still haven't decided what I'll be singing at the March, but I do know where and when------- at 12:08PM on the Washington Monument side "morning" stage (it's on 14th Street between Jefferson and Madison) I'll have a five minute solo performance... I'm sure my daughter Amy and her friend Llewellyn Gannon will be singing with me... and maybe some special guests...

Then at 1PM I'll be opening the "afternoon" stage at the Capitol side of the Mall (3rd Street between Madison and Jefferson) with the Pittsburgh Laughing Matters/Serious Business Chorus. We'll be performing my amazing friend Ginny Hildebrand's fabulous song, "If Men Could Get Pregnant."

After the March we'll be heading to Adams/Morgan for dinner... probably at the Red Sea or Meskerem. Hope to see you there.

Have you got any suggestions about what I should sing at the March for Women's Lives & Women's Equality on Sunday? I can't make up my mind.

This just in! Ta da! Huzzah! Hooray! I've been officially invited to perform at the huge April 25th March for Women's Lives & Women's Equality in Washington, DC. I performed at the April 9, 1989 demonstration and it was an incredible thrill to take the stage in between Sarah Weddington and Peter, Paul and Mary. The lineup this year is incredible. Visit March for Women's Lives & Women's Equality for details. My exact performance time and location will be posted in the tour dates as soon as I have the information.

Here is a great link for Earth Day, April 22...

the earth from above

Hi there folks--

I hope you'll check out the Workers' Memorial Day page I set up:

http://home.earthlink.net/~unionmaid/id1.html

In Solidarity,

Anne

The Muse and Whirled Retort 04-04-04 by chris chandler
Speaking of the number 4 and calendars - four is the number of years
Anne Feeney and I have worked together - which is longer than I have
worked with any other musician. She came down to Florida, where I
was living, as the last of the dangling chads were being counted. I
can't think of anyone I would have rather spent the Bush years with.

But as Anne has been granted a new lease on life - the confetti is
still falling from her fabulous prognosis - she has decided to pursue
other options. This summer will be our last West Coast tour
together, the rally to close the School of the Americas our last
show. December of 2000 through November of 2004. Four years.

So I will be looking for my fourth musical partner and will also be
doing some solo shows in the near future. If any of you have any
thoughts on this or want to volunteer - please drop me a line.

Also, if you were thinking about booking Anne and me as a duo - do so
FOURthwith.

Concert Preview: Stout of heart -- and opinion By John Hayes, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Friday, March 19, 2004

Mike Stout doesn't beat around the Bush. He's mad as hell about the war in Iraq, and he's not gonna take it anymore.

On his eighth politically charged, self-released album, the 54-year-old Pittsburgher wages a shock and awe campaign that he calls "War and Resistance." The opening salvos will be launched tomorrow in a CD release party with activist singer-songwriter Anne Feeney at Bloomfield Bridge Tavern.

There's nothing subtle about Stout's approach to songwriting, no middle ground in his leftist ideology. In the Woody Guthrie tradition, his songs reflect contemporary issues without resorting to journalism. They're more like partisan op-ed columns that grab political opponents by the throat and don't let go.

Police union upset by plans to name park for Haymarket figure
The Chicago Federation of Police is trying to dissuade the Chicago Park District from naming a small Northwest Side park in honor of a woman described by one 19th century police official as 'more dangerous than a thousand rioters.'

In a letter to Park District board members, FOP president Mark P. Donohue said he was 'disappointed and disheartened' by plans to name the park after Lucy Ella Gonzales Parsons, the widow of a man hanged in 1887 for his purported role in the Haymarket Square bombing of the previous year.

A parks spokesman said Parsons' name was suggested by Chicago Parks historian Julia Bachrach in honor of Parsons' long work as a labor organizer and champion of women and minority group members.

The nomination was part of a larger effort to recognize more women in a system where only 27 of 555 parks are named after women.

On April 12, PBS is airing a 90 minute documentary American Experience: Emma Goldman Infoshop News
'On May 14, 1940, Emma Goldman died in Toronto. Denied entry into the United States for so many years, she was finally permitted, in death, to cross the border. She was buried in Chicago's Waldheim Cemetery, near the graves of the Haymarket martyrs, a group of anarchists and labor activists whose mid-1880s trial and execution had sparked Goldman's activism in America.'