Movement Research Unit is a left-of-center organization based in the United Kingdom that provides research assistance to labor unions and other left-of-center activist groups to support disputes, strikes, pressure campaigns, and other activities pertaining to labor, economic, racial, social, and environmental issues. The group has supported anti-Israeli and Pro-Palestinian movements and produces the Watermelon Index, a project of Progressive International that documents companies that conduct business with Israel and supports campaigns against said companies. The group was founded by Joe Todd, who previously worked at organizing groups aligned with former leader of the British Labour Party Jeremy Corbyn and U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT). ^{1 2 3}

Background

Movement Research Unit was founded in 2022 by Joe Todd, a U.K.-based activist and organizer who previously worked for People’s Momentum, a campaign supporting Jeremy Corbyn’s campaign to become leader of the British Labour Party. Todd had previously founded the European division of The Social Practice, a left-of-center organizing group founded in the United States by former staffers for the Bernie Sanders 2016 Presidential campaign. ³

Activity

Movement Research Unit claims to provide research support for labor unions and other left-of-center activist groups for the purpose of supporting disputes, strikes, pressure campaigns, and other activities pertaining to labor, economic, racial, social, and environmental issues. The group works on left-of-center activist campaigns in the United Kingdom and abroad through scheduled in-person “hack” events where volunteers jointly provide focused research for a specific campaign. ^{4 5}

The group works with unions, left-of-center advocacy groups, and other organizations and projects that submit research requests to the Movement Research Unit, which assigns research to individual researchers and collective research “hack” events, which are held every other week. ⁴

The group claims its research efforts are meant to support organizations that advocate in favor of “economic, racial, and climate justice.” ⁵ Its research “hack” events claim to “do the crucial research that unions, direct action groups, and campaigns need.” ⁵ The group further states that “Every fortnight we take on a new project from a movement group we work with, from doing background research on professional landlords to finding out where big employers get their money from.” ⁵

Watermelon Index

According to a September 2024 job posting, the Movement Research Unit is the producer behind a research tool called the Watermelon Index, a project of Progressive International that documents companies that conduct business with Israel and supports campaigns against those companies. The job posting describes the project as a “tool for resistance against the occupation of Palestine and the genocide of Palestinian people. It is a database of companies that are complicit in Israel’s crimes, and the worker campaigns against them. It is designed to facilitate worker organising around Palestinian liberation.” ²

1. “Home.” Movement Research Unit. Accessed October 6, 2024. https://www.mvmtresearch.org/
2. “We’re hiring: Watermelon Index Organiser.” Progressive International. September 19, 2024. Accessed October 6, 2024. https://progressive.international/movement/article/2024-09-19-were-looking-for-the-watermelon-index-organiser/en
3. “Joe Todd.” Linkedin Profile. Accessed October 6, 2024. https://www.linkedin.com/in/joe-todd-baa40a1b6/?originalSubdomain=uk
4. “About the MRU.” Movement Research Unit. Accessed October 6, 2024. https://www.mvmtresearch.org/about-the-mru
5. “Movement Research Hack: Save the Warehouses.” Luma. September 5 2023. https://lu.ma/x62y2n1d