The Cancer in Portland's Labor Movement
Some voices are marginalized for a reason.
I’m getting this out in a rush, ahead of the beginning phases of the hostage release. Between that and the upcoming protests, I don’t think I’ll be in a charitable mindset to comment on this topic. I have a feeling the next few weeks will be difficult.
Oregon Nurses are on strike at Providence alongside doctors and other healthcare providers. That’s something I’d normally love to support but will not because of the actions of their unions. The years of support for radicals and conspiracy theorists mean that I must choose between “labor” and every other value that I hold.
It is finally time to discuss dear, sweet Olivia. The post is longer than usual. This psychopath has earned a detailed explanation.
What Happened?
The Oregon Nurses Association (2024 Endorsements here) chose Olivia Katbi to “MC” their rally, according to the Portland DSA. Here’s a speech she gave:
Olivia doesn’t say anything shocking here. It’s standard union rallying cries. She’s on her best behavior. She is wearing her signature red keffiyeh (a color more typically associated with Jordan but Olivia and her colleagues prefers red for… some reason).
Why Olivia Katbi, Oregon Nurses? Was she the only pro-labor mother you could find? Surely that isn’t true. Did you not know about her extracurriculars? I find that hard to believe as well. She’s a prominent DSA activist and a bit of a local celebrity, though probably not to normal, decent people.
Reader, I want to introduce you to the woman who is responsible for the rise of the Portland DSA. Many hands were involved, but Olivia is the firebrand who made sure it would succeed without losing its true purpose: as a platform for her personal war against Israel and Jews.
Who Is Olivia Katbi?
Olivia is an Arab-American Communist activist. She is an apologist for violent dictators, terrorists, and an unwavering voice in anti-Israel activism.
She is (or has been)
Co-chair of the Portland DSA.
BDS Movement’s North American Coordinator
Individual Giving Manager at Mondoweiss
Board member for CAIR-OR (who are strangely wrapped up in the Police Accountability Commission - more on that in the future)
Track Coach at Parkrose High School
So she’s a Communist, connected to antisemitic groups, connected to pro-terror groups, and she’s high school faculty.
She has also worked with JVP, SJP, and probably any group that has ever shouted “Intifada!”
But, unlike many past subjects of this newsletter, I can’t show you a cute LinkedIn profile. Because Olivia has ties to (and openly champions) terrorists, she keeps a lower profile.
She’s been doxxed several times according to her own account.
Here’s the Canary Mission page she mentions in that interview. It’s a long read but worth your time. It’s an “honor” few Portlanders hold. Canary Mission is a conservative source, but their report on her is factual. See this Stop Antisemitism profile on her for another highlight reel.
The Dark Days
I referenced this period in My Portland Story. Post 2016 Election Portland was rough. We all remember the political violence in the streets, but do you remember Olivia’s part in it?
This is back in 2019 (when she was still the DSA Co-chair) and she just can’t resist referencing Israel in an “antifascist” speech. She accuses Netanyahu of being part of an international fascist power ring with Trump. This is shortly before they signed the Abraham Accords, probably the best thing either ever did to spread peace in that region.
Her speech is a series of Antifa/black bloc bumpersticker slogans, tied together with her rabid anti-Israel obsession. That’s her brand. You’ve got a housing issue? She can make it about Palestine.
Here’s a fun story about the DSA and other Antifa groups showing up to protest the KKK, then just trashing monuments with Communist graffiti when their opponents didn’t materialize. Katbi is interviewed for the piece.
Katbi and her DSA were regularly involved throughout the 2020 riots and Katbi was repeatedly interviewed as a leader in the “protest movement.”
October 7th, 2023
It was always going to end up here. Within hours of the massacre beginning, we have Olivia Katbi on twitter:
The men and boys pictured would go on to commit crimes I still cannot describe without crying.
Olivia Katbi is a monster; devoured by her own hatred, stupidity, and miseducation. There is nothing left to discuss with someone like this. These people must be marginalized; shut out at every opportunity.
You want to know why everything is Palestine now? The Olivia Katbis of the world. They snuck into Antifa, BLM, union organizing, feminist groups, and every other movement that would have them. They rotted these organizations from the inside, sometimes for decades, and did it with a smile.
Olivia Katbi is well-liked and respected in her social circles. Her views are now mainstream in those groups. In part because she drove out anyone who disagreed with her.
Here’s Olivia’s comrade, Portland City Councilor Mitch “Cabrini” Green:
I will never miss an opportunity to remind you that Mitch Green is a piece of shit. That’s Mitch three days later commenting on “Israel’s Genocidal Project.” He doesn’t mean the war. He means Israel. A “settler-colonial-genocidal project.” We hadn’t even accurately counted the dead yet because they were in too many pieces and this economist needs to chime in because he’s a social media addict.
I think Mitch Green has a lot of trauma from his time in the military. I hope he gets the help he needs for it. Portland still deserves better than this spineless toad.
The next fifteen months were no better. Olivia’s DSA grew in size and influence, but they never lost sight of the fact that a “Socialist Portland” is an Anti-Zionist Portland.
The Omnicause must be fought; the Empire toppled.
The Unions and the Left
I haven’t forgotten about you, nurses. The backbone of our medical system.
Your union has placed me in an uncomfortable position. I’m being asked to support you. The Providence workers. The Oregon Nurses Association. Unions in general, it seems.
I regretfully decline.
I choose to say fuck you.
I cannot stand with someone who would never stand with me. That’s the sacrifice you make when you linked up with radicals, antisemites, and terror enthusiasts. You know exactly who Olivia Katbi is. She is your comrade, and you support her. She supports you, as long as you agree with her.
The enemy of my enemy is not necessarily my friend. But the friend of my enemy? How should I view you?
I was not profoundly or loudly Jewish before 2023. I was a regular guy with “Jewish ancestry.” I rarely thought about it, except on Hanukkah and Passover (my favorites). I wasn’t raised in a Jewish home. I didn’t know much about the immigration of my ancestors. I only knew that a DNA test and family stories linked me to “the Tribe.”
In my twenties I reconnected with Judaism and I was troubled by the casual and pervasive antisemitism I saw within Portland’s Left. As I’ve covered in earlier posts, I quit (or was driven out if you ask some) of Portland Radical Politics back in 2016, around the time Olivia Katbi and her allies rose to prominence.
The Dark Days raged while Katbi & Friends wormed their way into every facet of radical organizing. Dissenters were excommunicated.
On October 6th 2023, ancestry company 23andMe was hacked and the stolen DNA information was used to create a database of Jews on the dark web. Anyone with Ashkenazi Jewish ancestry made the list.
The next day, on October 7th, the deadliest attack against Jews since the Holocaust was carried out. A former Portlander, Shani Louk, was brutally murdered and paraded around as a trophy. A colleague’s sister was kidnapped. These facts were initially reported by local media but quickly drowned out.
Olivia Katbi cheered. Everything was going according to plan. The great movement she was a tiny part of was finally gaining momentum.
Something old and entirely evil worked its way back to the surface last year. An overnight success 10 years in the making, as the saying goes.
Here are a few Katbi Quotes:
“The only thing complicated about the Israel Palestine ‘conflict’ is the myriad of ways in which Israel, empowered by the imperialist US and the system of global capitalism, brutalizes Palestinians.”
“Israel is a terror state.”
“Fuck Israel. Join us when we march in Portland tomorrow. From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free”
“Wow. DSA [Democratic Socialists of America] voted to leave SI [Socialist International] last year. One of my big complaints about SI was the membership of Zionist parties.”
“…the link between the Portland Trail Blazers, Leupold & Stevens and the IDF’s crimes in Gaza.”
These quotes are all from 2018.
It was never about the Israel-Hamas war. It’s hardly about Palestine.
Olivia Katbi has been, for a decade, a small part of an existential threat to Jewish people around the world and to Western Civilization. Nothing she accomplishes will bring safety or dignity to Palestinians. She brings fire and hate. If you fail to drive her back to the margins where she belongs, you and your movement will be consumed by it.
The “genocide” is not over for her. It will never end until Israel does. She will destroy anything and everything you care about to see that happen. By any means necessary.
You, the Progressive Movement, the Labor Movement, the “Left,” let these people in. You need to show them the door. If you can’t, I have to move forward without you. There is no future I am interested in with these people at the helm. No progress will ever be possible, stained by their hate.
I will leave you with a quote from the great Rabbi Jonathan Sacks.
Who am I? asked Moses, but in his heart he knew the answer. I am not Moses the Egyptian or Moses the Midianite. When I see my people suffer I am, and cannot be other than, Moses the Jew. And if that imposes responsibilities on me, then I must shoulder them. For I am who I am because my people are who they are. That is Jewish identity, then and now.
After 15 months of horror, I know what I’m a part of.
Who do you stand with and what have you become?
Looking at Olivia Katbi's face in the opening photo and thinking about the vibe she projects, I have to opine that there's a qualitative difference between leftist radicals and their extremist counterparts on the MAGA far right. They're equally driven and dangerous. Both sides seek to further extreme ideological goals. In my opinion, it's her face that captures the difference. It radiates a malicious hip slyness. There's a high level of guile in her that's absent among the linear-thinking, what-you-see-is-what-you-get activists on the extreme right. They may be secretive about illegal acts they're planning, but aims, sympathies, alliances and even their methods are an open book. Stephen Miller is too tortured to have held back on what makes him tick. Not so with the likes of Olivia. That's sneaky look she's wearing. She's the coolest kid in the crew by far. Watch out.
Olivia Katbi cannot rewrite Communism's global record: east Germans will remember the fall of the Berlin wall, Ukrainians the Holodomor genocide, and some Chinese the starvation of perhaps 10-20 million people during Mao's great famine. That is the global record that history will remember, not her illogical and angry rants...