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J Michael Waller

@JMichaelWaller

Feb 4

x.com/DrKarlynB/stat… Sara Nelson, head of the Association of Flight Attendants union, talks about plans to shut down critical infrastructure as part of the insurgency against ICE.

What she describes is a textbook case of how unions and other civic organizations use the power of their membership to join insurgencies.

"I called on the labor movement to talk about a general strike" in solidarity with the operation against ICE, Nelson says in this February 1 Zoom call.

The general strike is planned to take place on May 1, which is International Workers Day (more on that later).

What she Nelson says is revealing. It shows the raw emotion and ideological extremism of the flight attendants' union, and how the union leadership exploits the membership to force a strike to support the anti-ICE operation.

Pay attention to her use of words:

"General strike." In revolutionary practice, a general strike is not to meet economic or labor demands, but to challenge and overthrow the political and economic order by paralyzing the economy and imposing hardship on the public. This is a term of insurrection or insurgency. It creates parallel power structures. Leon Trotsky viewed general strikes as the last step before armed insurrection.

"Capitalism unchecked." Anarchists and Marxists have different views of this term, but in general, the term is understood to mean that capitalism is irredeemably evil and oppressive, and that oppression must be resisted or "checked." It does not mean checks and balances in the American sense. It implies the urgency of action to check the oppressor.

Repetition of "fight" and "demand." Working-class movements that exhort people to "fight" and "demand" are calling for class struggle against established institutions. The words are not metaphors, but calls for direct action to build toward the overthrow of existing society. Demands are ultimatums that provide focus for the fight.

"Jacobin." Nelson recommends a reading from the Jacobin.com website about unions organizing against ICE. The Jacobins were he most extreme element of the French Revolution, the Robespierre faction that orchestrated The Terror and the mass beheadings with the guillotine. Marx, Engels, and Lenin praised the Jacobins.

In her 11-minute monologue, Nelson dwells heavily on working class history, tying an industry-specific "safety strike" to labor conflicts from 1981 and 1914, and extending solidarity to a larger cause that has nothing to do with the airline industry, safety, or organized labor.

She calls for acts of "redemption" for unions' failure to stand by Air Traffic Controllers strike from 44 years ago.

She combines "massive inequality" and "capitalism unchecked" with "private prisons," "slavery," and "ICE."

She demonizes the entire free enterprise system: "We have to be really clear that Capitalism has no humanity attached whatsoever."

Nelson urges people lot read a Jacobin.com article about "why unions need to care about this movement and need to make immigration central to the concerns of union members."

Her approach is a rehash of Stalin's Comintern-era "popular front" broad coalition strategy: "The capitalists have used racism and sexism to divide us" and "the immigrants and refugees to try to divide us as well."

"The only way that we can build up power is if we do it collectively," she adds.

Nelson frames the mass hiring of ICE agents in old Marxist class struggle terms. In her words, the Trump administration is providing "good paying jobs" at ICE to be "pitted against the rest of the working class."

More pure class struggle words, straight out of Marx and Lenin: "It's also important, as a union leader myself, that we all have to be preparing for a general strike. We all have to be preparing for that strike readiness. That is fundamentally the check on capitalism."

The flight attendants' union chief says that many in her organization don't "understand" the urgency: "I have more work to do in my own union on this ... and we are starting to see this seep into our airports" with ICE agents pursuing targets on aircraft.

She explains, in her own words, why the Association of Flight Attendants union is tied directly to "mass action" and "getting into the streets":

"For the people who are trying to get the tools tonight about what to do next, understand that the only way that we are going to have mass action is if everyone understands what the problem is," Nelson says.

"And if everyone understands what the demands are about why we're getting into the streets. The people of Minneapolis understand this very well because the fight was brought to their doorsteps." (Gets emotional, chokes back tears.)

There is no alternative but to fight, she says: "People have no choice but to fight." She talks about a 1914 strike of immigrant coal miners. "They were experiencing what Minneapolis is experiencing today. They were experiencing violence from the state." (Chokes up again)

Nelson whips up a siege mentality to put people in a fighting mood:

"we have to organize. ... we have to talk about the fight that is coming to our doorsteps all across this country. We have to organize around that. We have to set our demands. The people of Minnesota have set their demands, and they're very clear about it. It is immediate demands, about ICE out...."

She is not calling for pressure on politicians as much as pressure on the private companies that keep America running.

In her words: "this is not about putting pressure on the White House. This is about putting pressure on the people who control our economy. So define the problem, set your demands, back up your demands with what you are willing to do - that is the strike readiness that you're preparing for - and add urgency. And in this moment there could not be more urgency. So we stand with you and we are preparing and having those conversations in our union about how to shut it down ...."

The Association of Flight Attendants, under its present leadership, is a threat to aviation.

@USDOT & @DHSgov should declare it a threat.

AFA is on 20 airlines and has targeted @Delta next. afacwa.org/airlines/

What the Association of Flight Attendants union chief is planning to do is against federal law.

General strikes are unlawful under the Railway Labor Act, which governs airline employees.

Airlines can fire participating employees & the union loses its protective legal shield.

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J Michael Waller

@JMichaelWaller

Feb 3

https://twitter.com/VenturaReport/status/2018402742264336640

This "checkpoint" looks lame, but it's the start of a network of what will become stronger and more numerous checkpoints.

Such illegal checkpoints are early nodes of an illegal policing system characteristic of insurgencies worldwide.

Loyal citizens should take them down.

https://twitter.com/VenturaReport/status/2018402742264336640

Another purpose of the illegal checkpoints is to make the public lose confidence in the police and the judicial system.

The intent is to break down law and order. This breakdown replicates itself elsewhere.

This is by design, and it's been done many times over the past century.

This is Taliban stuff. voanews.com/a/taliban-figh…

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J Michael Waller

@JMichaelWaller

Jan 30

Back in 1987, Benjamin Linder of Portland, Oregon, was working with the Sandinistas in Nicaragua and got killed by the US-backed anti-communist resistance fighters, known as Contras.

I testified at a congressional hearing that the Sandinistas wanted people like him killed as a martyr.

The reason was that the killing of Americans would put pressure on Congress to cut off support for anti-communist forces in Central America.

We see a similar pattern inside our own country today.

Linder was raised in a left-wing activist household. His mother was a member of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF), which collaborated during the Cold War with Soviet international front organizations.

Both her parents were pro-Hanoi radicals during the Vietnam War. They raised their son to support similar causes such as communist revolutionary movements in Central America.

Both Linder parents sat next to me in the hearing and were obviously displeased with my testimony. Members of Congress got upset when I said that American supporters of the Sandinistas wanted Americans like Ben Linder to die.

Part of the hearing is digitized here. books.google.com/books?id=eCZxb…

I will cite from my testimony in a subsequent post.

Here is what I said in my 1987 congressional testimony about American radicals who wanted US citizens to get killed as martyrs to promote their cause.

It concerns a group called Witness for Peace, which remains active in Minnesota. This is what I testified to Congress 38 years ago, so this is nothing new:

"The political tactics used by Witness for Peace are extremely unethical .... for two years it anticipated the killing of American citizens by the contras so that they could use the death for political propaganda. They wanted someone like Benjamin Linder to die."

"Now that the military value of Witness for Peace's activities have been established, the organization's motives must be considered." (See next post)

More from my 1987 testimony: "They want their friends to die."

We infiltrated Witness for Peace and other Marxist groups. I testified to Congress: "some of the group's leaders privately expressed hope that some of their activists in Nicaragua would get shot by the [US-backed] resistance. If a Witness for Peace activist was killed, they reasoned, American public opinion would turn against the [anti-communist] contras ..."

Read 4 tweets

J Michael Waller

@JMichaelWaller

Jan 15

🧵 Trump's squeeze on Antigua and Barbuda 🇦🇬 passportholders is having an effect on the pro-Maduro @gastonbrowne cartel that runs the Caribbean country.

Browne's opposition is not blaming Trump. It is blaming Browne.

And Browne blames Trump. @DeputySecState @SecRubio @StephenM facebook.com/itsmyupp/video…

2) "We are in a place that we have never been before - a place where lifelong friends are not only telling us we can’t be trusted, but they’re telling us we are no longer welcome in their house," says opposition leader Jamale Pringle. Not only in the US, but Canada & EU. facebook.com/reel/181162564…

3) "It was Gaston Browne, allowing shady characters to sell our passports. It was GaB, handing out diplomatic passports like Cracker Jack to persons who know nothing about Antigua and Barbuda, while he left his parliamentarians have no such privilege," Pringle said. (Browne is pictured below)

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J Michael Waller

@JMichaelWaller

Jan 12

🧵 1) The Cuban regime will collapse soon. We must be prepared to deal with its 66 year-old international terror network - and the people in it.

Including people in the United States.

Mike Gonzalez @Gundisalvus summarizes that network in this new report (link in next post).

@Gundisalvus 2) "From training Marxist terrorists in the 1960s, to the pro-Hamas mayhem at U.S. universities in 2024 and 2025, to the spread of transnational crime syndicates in U.S. cities, Cuba’s rulers have long plotted America’s demise."
heritage.org/global-politic…

@Gundisalvus 3) "Today, Cuba’s communist regime is the mastermind of Caracas’s plan to destabilize U.S. streets through narco-trafficking and political unrest."

DOJ needs to draw up indictments of the Cuban officials responsible and bring them here for trial.

Read 10 tweets

J Michael Waller

@JMichaelWaller

Dec 5, 2025

🧵 The new National Security Strategy of the US is more pro-Europe than many Europeans are.

Page 5: "We want to support our allies in preserving the freedom and security of Europe, while restoring Europe’s civilizational self-confidence and Western identity"

2) The US supports European countries keeping their national identities. Page 12:

"We will oppose elite-driven, anti-democratic restrictions on core liberties in Europe, the Anglosphere, and the rest of the democratic world, especially among our allies.:

3) The US opposes "disastrous ... ideologies that have so greatly harmed Europe, threaten the United States, and subsidize our adversaries." (page 14)

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