Ever since we've been forced to stand by and observe this farcical, jingoistic, RW extremist fear-mongering, red-meat-for-the-base, obvious temper tantrum stunt by the Dunce-In-Chief of a completely non-existent immigration problem, it's been the elephant in the room for anyone with Left proclivities to wonder aloud about this moment of a "government shutdown" (read: RW coup). It should indeed be the best and most obvious opportunity in a very long time for the beleagured and moribund labor unions to be shaken awake to the very potent power they've always possessed.

Without getting into the history of how unions have been bloodily dismantled by the FBI or how their leaders have been bought off or the effects of relentless RW hate machine propaganda's non-stop hammering of them, let's just say it's been long, long, long overdue to show that even the smallest act of solidarity among workers could bring the capitalist predators to their knees.

And that's all it took yesterday - a relatively small act.

There was no general strike, no outright work stoppage, or picket lines.

Just a spanner in the works, a monkey wrench, to imply what was possible with just a little disruption. In the end that was all that was needed.

Yet the potential power of this cannot be underestimated. This could be the moment we look back upon when we begin to see a reversal of the violence of the past 40 years at the hands of the New Democrats' Neoliberalism and their NeoCon counterparts. But only if there begins a coalescing of the various strikes abounding, including the LA Teachers Strike, etc.

It may be too early yet to hope for a kind of 360 reportage dwelling on the ramifications of this moment. Jacobin had this: Sickouts and Strike Threats Stopped the Government Shutdown

As recently as Thursday evening, elected officials were engaged in theatrical, go-nowhere resolutions with no real chance of reopening the government.

But by Friday afternoon, President Trump abruptly announced a deal to reopen the government, at least temporarily. What changed in less than twenty-four hours? Massively disruptive worker sickouts and the threat of strikes.

Earlier this week, Association of Flight Attendants (AFA) international president Sara Nelson raised the possibility of a general strike to fight the shutdown, and a group of aviation unions issued a dire warning that the aviation system’s safety was degrading.

Then on Friday, the second missed payday of the shutdown, a significant number of air traffic controllers called out from work, temporarily grounding all flights at New York’s LaGuardia airport and causing flight delays across the East Coast. A source inside the White House told CNN Friday that the flight delays were a “contributing catalyst” to the hasty deal.

As news of the delays spread, Nelson immediately raised the possibility that her union members might engage in a “suspension of service” due to safety concerns in an interview. She also told New York, “We’re mobilizing immediately …. If air traffic controllers can’t do their jobs, we can’t do ours.” She carefully avoided claiming the union was preparing to organize a strike, but the implication that there was a very real possibility of a work stoppage was clear.

Because of federal workers’ severe lack of labor rights and the fraught history of labor relations between air traffic controllers and the government in particular, we may never know the extent to which the call-outs were organized or how big they were. But given that they came on the symbolic date of federal workers’ second missed payday and followed a week of increasingly dramatic rhetoric from aviation-sector workers, some degree of worker coordination both within and across unions seems reasonable to assume.

And there is no other explanation for Trump and the Republicans’ quick reversal besides workers’ threat of disruption. They were comfortable introducing a bill with funding for a border wall — which they knew would not pass — on Thursday. But mere hours after workers threatened to disrupt the country’s aviation system, the Right immediately reopened the government. In fact, such action is exactly what the Right itself predicted it would take to end the shutdown.

Here's an excerpt from the speech by AFA International President Sara Nelson, "General Strike: Fierce Urgency of Now":

“But, This award is not about me. This award was created to honor the legacy of Dr. King. This award is about all of us. We are together here tonight because he called us together. He called on us to come together with the “fierce urgency of now” to fight for justice.

Our calling is now. There is a humanitarian crisis unfolding right now for our 800,000 federal sector sisters and brothers who are either locked out of work or forced to come to work without pay due to the government shutdown.

These are real people who are facing real consequences of being dragged into the longest shutdown in history. No money to pay for rent, for childcare, or a tank of gas to get to work. The federal worker stretching insulin through the night and wondering if she will wake up in the morning. The transportation security officer in her third trimester with no certainty for her unborn child. The corrections officer who tried to take his own life because he saw no other way out. The air traffic controller who whispered to his union leader, “I just don’t know how long I can hang on.”

The situation is changing rapidly. Major airports are already seeing security checkpoints closing. Many more will follow. Safety inspectors and federal cybersecurity staff are on furlough, not working. The layers of safety and security that keep us safe are not in place due to the shutdown.

I have a growing concern for our members’ safety and security.

In addition, it is likely days – no more than a week – until the aviation system begins to unravel and massive flight cancelations ensue. When that happens, private jets won’t take off either, and no one will get to Atlanta for the Superbowl.

At best, our members will lose work, at worst ..

As I have said many times in recent days, safety and security is non-negotiable.

The TSA was created for the same reason my friends’ names, along with 3000 others, are engraved in bronze at the 9/11 memorial in New York.

If they can’t do their job, I can’t do mine. Dr. King said, “their destiny is tied up with our destiny. We cannot walk alone.”

Federal workers here tonight - Stand Up.

Flight Attendants and aviation workers - Stand Up.

Nurses who count on the medicine we deliver on our planes - Stand Up.

Everyone who flew to this conference - Stand Up.

Anyone who believes it is a crime to make people work without pay - Stand Up.

Federal workers, We’ve got your back!

The country sees no solution in sight, but Labor can lead the way. Dr. King rallied us by reaching for the mountain top. He didn’t seek integration of just ONE school, he sought freedom in our schools for ALL children. He didn’t seek integration of just ONE lunch counter, he aspired to have us ALL “sit down together at the table of brotherhood.” And sisterhood, Dr. King!”

THAT is the kind of rhetoric the country needs to hear.

The head of the flight attendants' union calls for a general strike and the next thing you know Trump is in the Rose Garden, caving. A thing of beauty.

— Doug Henwood (@DougHenwood) January 25, 2019

Some nice serendipity here:

LaGuardia’s air traffic controllers, who challenged a government shutdown over an anti-migrant wall, work at an airport named for Fiorello “Little Flower” La Guardia, child of immigrants, interpreter at Ellis Island, Republican who supported FDR and the New Deal. pic.twitter.com/DzCK0hXyFs

— Joyce E. Chaplin (@JoyceChaplin1) January 26, 2019

LaGuardia proves that decades after Reagan became the biggest union-buster of our lifetimes, the shutdown ended because US air traffic controllers....organized. #TrumpShutdown #TrumpCaved

— John Fugelsang (@JohnFugelsang) January 25, 2019

Historians may well conclude that it was worker solidarity that caused Trump to surrender on the shutdown -- the air traffic controllers who skipped work today, closing down LaGuardia, and the more than 10,000 I.R.S. workers who missed work today.

— Steven Greenhouse (@greenhousenyt) January 25, 2019

Greenhouse should know. He knows a thing or two about unions and the plight of American workers.

Was it a wildcat strike? Perhaps. It definitely had nothing to do with the venal, lapdog Democrats, who are going to try to get as much mileage as they can out of this.

I couldn't find much about a possible uprising at the national level (maybe it'll come out soon, though there's no chance whatsoever of the MSM covering this honestly to bring this potentially epoch-changing news to the masses), but did find this:

While everyone was watching delays at La Guardia, a TSA sick-out actually got two flights canceled in Louisiana this morning—a first for the shutdown https://t.co/93aEFjgF9L

— Henry Grabar (@henrygrabar) January 25, 2019

"None are so hopelessly enslaved, as those who falsely believe they are free. The truth has been kept from the depth of their minds by masters who rule them with lies." -Johann von Goethe

We have nothing to lose but our chains.

I once saw someone describe a General Strike as one "seeing the face of God."

To get a feel for what that was/could be like read Howard Zinn's accounts of what cities like Seattle, San Francisco and Oakland were like during General Strikes of the 30's. Also read the history of potent railroad strikes during the 1870's in "Strike!" by Jeremy Blecher. Or Jack London's vivid fictional account "The Dream of Debs."

And there was my 3 year old son yesterday morning, singing to himself over and over while he played with his cars, rather presciently but certainly unaware of it himself,

"Power To The People"

Don't have much more, folks. Not a lot of reportage to share or clear ruminations myself; just a jumbled sense that, if focused and dwelt upon, this moment seems to me a harbinger of good things to come because people/workers were forced to look to one another and find solidarity in that person.

If it's at least the beginning of the death of the myth of that bullshit he-man, rugged Individualism RW canard I'd especially be happy.

And if this gives some backbone to one of the most honorable institutions - the labor union, which has been so browbeaten beyond recognition for decades, then we could really be on to something here.

#OccupyWallSt
#WeAreUnstoppableAnotherWorldIsPossible
#AllOurGrievancesAreConnected