Movement for Black Lives (M4BL) and CUNY Law’s CLEAR Clinic have co-created a robust resource for activists and protesters to guard against misinformation as well as infiltration by law enforcement and white supremacists, and a guide on how to handle questioning by law enforcement.
M4BL is a coalition of Black-led grassroots organizations from all over the United States that formed in December 2014. They were created as a space for Black organizations across the country to debate and discuss current political conditions. They develop shared assessments of what political interventions are necessary in order to achieve key policy, disseminate cultural and political wins, convene organizational leadership in order to debate, and co-create a shared movement- wide strategy. This coalition unites under the fundamental idea that we can achieve more together than we can separately.
CUNY’s CLEAR Clinic is a community-oriented and movement building organization that provides legal representation and consultation, know- your- rights workshops, and support for community organizing. They are the only organization in NYC that provides these services and support free of charge.
CLEAR provides various forms of legal support and representation to M4BL and its members. Ramzi Kassem, Princess Masilungan, and Naz Ahmad of the CLEAR clinic generated the content in these resources in partnership with M4BL members and leaders and based on M4BL’s specific needs in this moment.
This content builds on years of work by generations of CLEAR students who developed and refined CLEAR’s rights awareness curricula in response to various community and movement needs. You can find these resources on the M4BL homepage. Additionally, the resources are on CLEAR’s site here.
On June 5th, Federal law enforcement seized face masks that M4BL were mailing out to organizers nationwide. M4BL pushed back immediately, including through media via the Huffington Post and Newsweek. CLEAR sent a letter on behalf of M4BL to the agency in question, and the masks were returned to M4BL.
For the weekend of June 19-21, M4BL has asked for community mobilization in Washington, D.C. and local communities. You can find more about their call to action here. Learn more about M4BL’s open petition to divest from police and invest in Black communities (you can sign that petition here), and share their content by tagging them at @Mvmnt4BlkLives on Twitter, @mvmnt4blklives on Instagram, and @mvmt4bl on Facebook.