BLACK LIVES Matter UK announced just days ago that it will be giving £600,000 from its £1.2million raised via GoFundMe after last summer’s protests to grassroots groups focusing on helping the black community. 

Following the announcement, The Voice sat down – on zoom, of course – with Director of BLM UK Alex Wanjiku Kelbert and spokesperson for BLM Lorna Mulungushi* to hear more about BLM UK, find out who is behind it, how they decided to distribute the money, and their plans for the future.

Who makes up Black Lives Matter UK?

Alex: “All of us have quite different lives. There are people in the group who have children, there are people who are students, or who are working full time, people, or who are carers for their parents. 

“I think that’s a big part of what makes us work as a group – having people with different experiences of the immigration system, people who’ve been in detention for example, people who were born here, people who were not born here. For me, that’s definitely a huge strength of the group.”

How do you decide how much money each group gets?

Alex: “It’s been a slightly different process with different groups. I think the overall idea was for us not to make it into a bureaucratic process, because we’re not a funder. 

“So all we wanted to do was recognise that we’re in a situation where we have money and that we want to be able to redistribute it and do that well, and not do it in a way that’s actually creating more difficulties and obstacles, like asking people to write a 70-page application that’s detailing everything. 

“The first round [of funding] is unique in the sense that it’s also based on existing relationships and trust and knowing that some of these groups have actually been around for a long time.

“Another reason was speed, because, for example, groups like Sistah Space [a domestic abuse charity, who were recently evicted from their site by Hackney Council] are in a really urgent situation right now, so we wanted to get some of that money out right now. 

“Whereas with the second phase [of money we’ll give out], I think we’ll be trying to respond to a slightly different vision, which is to actually, like enable groups who may not have the same kind of platforms as some of the bigger groups to be able to come to us.”

Half of the £1.2 million raised via GoFundMe is being given away, where will the rest of the money go?

Alex: “I think part of what we want to do is build our own organisation. I think that that’s also honoring the people who donated to the crowdfunder. There is a need for a really strong anti-racist organisation that can do direct action, that can do community organising. We also want to do educational work which is the kind of work we’ve done in the past. We can now actually do it on a larger scale.”

Lorna: “There’s been an incredible opportunity given to us by the 36,000 people that have donated to us. We really want to honor that they have invested in the Black Lives Matter movement.”

BLM registered as a community benefit society in September for legal requirements, how has that side of running the organisation been? 

Alex: “I think for the last however many months, we’ve ended up doing quite boring, legal and administrative kind of work, setting up the legal entity and figuring out accounting practices, and all that kind of stuff. For most of us in the organisation, that’s not our background. We’ve never had to handle funding like this, so being able to do all of it well, and do it right, was really important.

There were definitely months when I was feeling really drained

Alex, Black Lives Matter UK

“I think there were definitely months when I was feeling really drained from these kinds of legal conversations and administrative conversations. But then having conversations with different groups, including the groups that we’re now funding was always a reminder that this is why we’re doing this work. Having those conversations was just the best thing in terms of getting me excited. It’s about keeping our eyes on the prize.”

How do you find working with the media?

Lorna: “I think we’ve learned the hard way over the years. Thinking back to when we did climate change protests and action, and how so much has been written about how we were a white group or white organisation. That stuff is not only factually incorrect, but really disappointing and kind of heartbreaking when you know that the work that you’re doing comes from a lot of black people, many of whom have jobs, have children, have so much going on. 

“We’ve learned the hard way to make sure that we write press releases and make sure that we get our story out there. This is why we try to keep our social media as up to date as we possibly can, even as volunteers. This is why we do interviews with papers like The Voice so that we make sure that we are putting out a story that is true to what we know and what we understand.”

What do you make of Priti Patel saying she wouldn’t take the knee and that the BLM protests were dreadful?

Lorna: “I think just putting Black Lives Matter in a headline or anything like that probably gets people to click on it. I don’t think it is a particularly good use of a question for a journalist to ask Priti Patel whether or not she would take the knee because we’ve all seen what her policies are and her policies speak volumes, in terms of the impact the hostile environment is having on black and migrant communities. You know, we only need to look at the problems of the no recourse to public funds.”

Having no recourse to public funds means that a person ‘subject to immigration control’ cannot claim most welfare benefits, including income support, housing benefit and a range of allowances and tax credits.

Alex: “I think there’s something really worrying about the way that that we’ve been name dropped in Parliament in quite an unprecedented way.

We don’t believe that black liberation will come through a political party.

Lorna, Black Lives Matter UK

“When you see politicians actively trying to build so much hostility against a group like ours which is actually about the betterment of society, I think that’s incredibly worrying, you know, and that’s part of what we need to assess and see how we position ourselves in relation to that.”

While BLM is a nonpartisan group, does it ever work with politicians?

Lorna: “I’m going to answer for myself on this one. I think to build an anti-racist movement, you need lots of players, people in different roles, people in different positions, and sometimes those people are going to be people who are in parliament. Sometimes, we are actually going to need political parties in order to fight for specific rights that affect black communities. For example, whether the National Health Service is funded or not is really impacted by who is in power. 

“What’s happening at a local level, for example, Sistah Space being able to access or not access appropriate space in which to support domestic violence survivors is dependent on what’s happening at a local council level. 

“So I don’t think we shy away from the fact that party politics has an impact on black communities. But I think we have to be really careful and be really strategic about the ways that we, as an organisation, could be used. 

“Yet, ultimately, we don’t believe that black liberation will come through a political party. But just to reiterate, I think they probably will require lots of different agents of change to bring about the kind of world we want to live in.”

Brentford football team recently stopped taking the knee. What are your thoughts on this symbol?

Lorna: “I think taking the knee is such an incredible, powerful gesture, and we need incredible and powerful gestures – they are a huge aspect of building a movement. But I don’t think UK BLM has ever said that taking the knee will bring about the structural change and end to racism that we so desperately need and deserve as black communities. 

“What I applaud is people who are willing to stand up and speak out against the kind of racism they face in their workplace, or in their communities or in their own experience and finding the ways for them to platform that to make that visible.”

We’ve always spoken about borders. So we’re always going to be reiterating the importance of ending the hostile environment and border controls.

Lorna, Black Lives Matter UK

What’s in store for the future of BLM UK?

Lorna: “We’ve tried to broadly outline on our website what we see as being the important work for black liberation and anti-racist organising. 

“We’re thinking about community land trust and food co-ops, and proper social housing, and secure, safe, well paid green jobs. We’ve also talked about the importance of transforming education and protecting black lives from COVID-19. Obviously, we’ve always spoken about borders. So we’re always going to be reiterating the importance of ending the hostile environment and border controls. There’s also the work we want to do in defunding the police and investing in our communities. 

“But in the immediate, we are partnering with the UFFC [United Families and Friend Campaign] on the people’s tribunal, and also working on this second round of funding.”

Alex: “We have a huge, huge opportunity. This is one of the most exciting things that’s ever happened for the anti-racist movement in this country. [Last summer’s protests] were the largest anti-racist protests in British history and so I think we are really lucky to be living in this moment.

“For us, as members of BLM UK, we’re really lucky to be part of shaping this movement. It’s a huge responsibility, and it’s scary, and it’s been, you know, really terrifying and stressful, but it’s also really beautiful. I feel very blessed and grateful to be a part of this.”

*A pseudonym has been used to protect her identity