Non-profit

Movement NetLab

Website:

movementnetlab.org

Location:

Brooklyn, NY

Project of:

Alliance for Global Justice

Type:

Fiscally Sponsored Project

Formation:

2013

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Movement Net Lab (MNL) is a project of the Alliance for Global Justice, a fiscal sponsor of far-to-radical-left advocacy groups. MNL provides support services to groups that consist of training, network mapping, communications, speakers, content, materials, consultation, and designs to further left-of-center social and advocacy movements.

The group provides in-person training and interactive on-line webinars for activist and activist trainers. Movement Net Lab collaborates with ten left-of-center groups through the Activist Network Platform (ANP): Black Lives Matter-NYC, Wildfire Project, Beautiful Trouble, The Peoples Climate Movement, If Not Now, Movimiento Cosecha, Within Our Lifetime/William Winter Institute, Intelligent Mischief (IM), Occupy Sandy Hurricane Relief, and the Solidaire Network. 1

Founding

Movement Net Lab (MNL) is a sponsored project of the Alliance for Global Justice (AFGJ, sometimes styled AfGJ) founded in 2013 to provide technical, administrative, and training assistance to far-left-wing advocacy organizations. AFGJ is an organizing group that serves as a fiscal sponsor to numerous foreign and domestic far-left and extreme-left causes. AFGJ arose from the Nicaragua Network, an organization which supported the Communist-aligned Sandinista regime in Nicaragua. 2 The group describes itself as “anti-capitalist,” opposed to the principles of liberal democracy and individual rights, and favoring a “multi-polar” world order with powerful rivals to American international primacy. 3

AfGJ has numerous associations with the radical left, running efforts in defense of the de facto socialist dictatorship of Venezuela,4 publishing a defense of the North Korean regime,5 and taking actions on behalf of radical-left extremists including Leonard Peltier and Mumia Abu-Jamal. 6 7 8

Services and Training

Movement Net Lab provides support services to groups through training, network mapping, communications, speakers, content, materials, consultation, and designs to further its client movements. The group provides in-person training and interactive on-line webinars for activist and activist trainers. Topics the MNL teaches are providing sub-groups of their clients with the same consultation, design, strategy, networking, and funding networks they provide as services. 9

MNL operates working groups to push the organization’s philosophy and message through educational materials, videos, slideshows, and toolkits. The group also advocates for “electoral insurgency… inspired by the municipalist revolution in Spain and electoral insurgencies in other parts of the world.” 10

Collaborating Groups

Movement Net Lab collaborates with ten left-of-centers groups through the Activist Network Platform (ANP) with the Black Lives Matter movement. Several staff members of MNL have worked, are currently working with, or helped found at least one of the ANP groups. 11

Black Lives Matter-NYC

BLM NYC Is a direct-action protest organization that claims to support the liberation of the black community from racist oppression. The organization is not affiliated with the official Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement and instead operates as an independent path from the national movement. 12

Wildfire Project

The Wildfire Project is a left-wing social activist organization and a project of the Movement Strategy Center. 13

Beautiful Trouble

Beautiful Trouble styles itself as a place to purchase multiple toolkits or books for revolutions, including an “A Card Deck for Revolution.” 14

The Peoples Climate Movement

A project of GreenFaith, it is a coalition of environmental and labor organizations in the United States that has organized a series of marches and protests since 2014. 15

If Not Now

For more, see If Not Now

A small group of Jewish activists that are attempting to end the American Jewish community’s support for Israel. 16

Movimiento Cosecha

Movimiento Cosecha is a pro-illegal immigrant and liberal expansionist immigration advocacy group that professes the desire to organize “large mobilizations and general strikes” in the U.S. 17

Within Our Lifetime/William Winter Institute

Within Our Lifetime/William Winter Institute is a Brooklyn based pro-Palestinian and anti-Israeli group that advocates for the “Right to Resist and Collective Liberation.” 18

Intelligent Mischief (IM)

The group was founded by two Afro-Caribbean immigrants that hold the view that humans “are deeply entrenched in cultures that lie in our conscious and subconscious.” The group uses Black Liberation theory to “prefigurative and that posit the assumption that black people exist in the future and we are free there.” 19

Occupy Sandy Hurricane Relief

Occupy Sandy Hurricane Relief was an effort to create a left-wing response to Hurricane Sandy founded by members of Occupy Wall Street. 20

Solidaire Network

Solidaire Network is a project of the Proteus Fund22

Leadership

In addition to their work at MNL, all staff members work either with an ANP collaborating group or another left-of-center group. Two MNL staff, Allen Kwabena Frimpong and Kei Williams, are Black Lives Matter NYC activists. MNL staff members Pablo Benson­Silva and Tamara Shapiro are members of The New York City Network of Worker Cooperatives (NYC NOWC), a trade association for worker cooperative businesses in the NYC area that aims to support worker-owned businesses. 23 Samantha Corbin, Pablo Benson­Silva, and Tamara Shapiro are all members of Occupy Sandy, a splinter group of the original Occupy Wall Street. MNL staff member Gan Gola is the resident artist for the group, member of Beautiful Trouble, and part of the Arts and Culture working group of Occupy Wall Street. 24

References

  1. “Collaborations.” Movement Net Lab, November 16, 2017. https://movementnetlab.org/partners/.
  2. Hogberg, David. “Communists Funding the Resistance: The Alliance for Global Justice.” Capital Research Center. August 29, 2017. Accessed November 29, 2017. https://capitalresearch.org/article/communists-funding-the-resistance-the-alliance-for-global-justice/
  3. “Our Principles.” Alliance for Global Justice. Accessed November 30, 2017. https://afgj.org/about/our-principles.
  4. “Protest at OAS says ‘U.S. hands off Venezuela!’” Workers World. June 09, 2017. Accessed November 30, 2017. https://www.workers.org/2017/06/09/protest-at-oas-says-u-s-hands-off-venezuela/
  5. Smith, Stansfield. “An Interview with North Koreans.” Alliance for Global Justice. April 07, 2013. Accessed December 07, 2017. https://afgj.org/an-interview-with-north-koreans. Workers.org version: Smith, Stan. “A Korean View of Current Situation.” Workers World, April 12, 2013. https://www.workers.org/2013/04/8171/. Archived version of both: AfGJ + Workers.org – North Korea
  6. “Political Prisoners in the USA.” Alliance for Global Justice. September 07, 2017. Accessed December 08, 2017. https://afgj.org/politicalprisonersusa
  7. Pamela Anderson Foundation, Return of a Private Foundation (Form 990-PF), 2014, Part XV
  8. “AfGJ’s Fiscally Sponsored Projects.” Alliance for Global Justice. Accessed December 08, 2017. https://afgj.org/sponsored-projects/fiscally-sponsored-projects/fiscally-sponsored-projects.
  9. “Services.” Movement Net Lab, November 16, 2017. https://movementnetlab.org/services/.
  10. “Working Groups.” Movement Net Lab, November 16, 2017. https://movementnetlab.org/working-groups/.
  11. “Collaborations.” Movement Net Lab, November 16, 2017. https://movementnetlab.org/partners/.
  12. “What We Believe.” Black Lives Matter. Accessed September 21, 2019. https://blacklivesmatter.com/what-we-believe/.
  13. “The Wildfire Project.” The Wildfire Project. Accessed September 21, 2019. http://wildfireproject.org/.
  14. Beautiful Trouble. Accessed September 21, 2019. https://beautifultrouble.org/.
  15. “Our Movement.” Peoples Climate Movement. Accessed September 21, 2019. https://peoplesclimate.org/our-movement/.
  16. “If Not Now.” Movement Net Lab, April 1, 2016. http://movementnetlab.org/portfolio-items/if-not-now/?portfolioID=11300.
  17. Movimiento Cosecha. Accessed September 20, 2019. https://www.lahuelga.com/index#call-to-action-2.
  18. “Within Our Lifetime: United for Palestine.” Within Our Lifetime | United for Palestine. Accessed September 20, 2019. https://www.wolpalestine.com/.
  19. “About Us.” Intelligent Mischief. Accessed September 21, 2019. https://www.intelligentmischief.com/about-us#about-im.
  20. “Occupy Sandy Hurricane Relief.” Movement Net Lab, May 14, 2015. https://movementnetlab.org/portfolio-items/occupy-sandy-hurricane-relief/.
  21. Ludwig, Hayden. “When Marxism Masquerades as Philanthropy.” Capital Research Center. Capital Research Center. Accessed September 21, 2019. https://capitalresearch.org/article/when-marxism-masquerades-as-philanthropy/.[/note] established in 2013 to steer funding towards left-wing organizations. 21“Who We Are.” Solidaire. Accessed September 21, 2019. https://solidairenetwork.org/who-we-are/.
  22. NYC Network of Worker Cooperatives, August 29, 2019. https://nycworker.coop/home/.
  23. “Who We Are.” Movement Net Lab, November 16, 2017. https://movementnetlab.org/who-we-are/.

Donor Organizations

  1. Proteus Fund (Non-profit)
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Movement NetLab

1000 Dean St. #307
Brooklyn, NY 11238