Hamza Egal, chair of Global Majority Greens and convenor of the Greens’ racism policy working group, has sent a searing open letter to the leadership of the Green Party, calling on them to address “racialised harm,” governance failures, and what he describes as the weaponisation of party processes. Egal also serves as an elected member of the Standing Orders Committee (SOC), demonstrating a wealth of experience with the party’s internal governance structures and procedures.
Addressing the letter to Harriet Lamb and Zack Polanski, internal governance branches, and the Green’s Parliamentary group, Egal states:
The Green Party of England and Wales has a racism problem. Not a perception problem. Not a communication problem. A racism problem — structural, documented, and sustained.
Egal goes on to say that he has exhausted attempts to address this “racism problem” in private and in clear frustration, he has brought this serious issue to the public’s attention.
Discussing actions already taken, he writes:
I have raised concerns through the party’s own channels, used its rules and structures, submitted evidence, and waited for responses that have not come. What I have received instead is exclusion, misrepresentation, and the weaponisation of process against me.
Egal repeatedly raises concerns throughout the damning letter about inaction and ignorance from leadership. This suggests that, whilst the party portrays itself to be anti-racist, it hasn’t been behaving as such towards its minoritised members and elected officials.
A pretty damning accusation for a party that portrays itself as acting in solidarity and that apparently celebrates its diversity.
Green party racism furore
Speaking to the recent Spring Conference which saw repeated filibustering and delay tactics to block the vote on landmark motion “Zionism is Racism”, Egal said he chose not to attend due to fear of suffering harassment for being a “racialised member”. A concern which was seemingly proven well-founded by members actively working against the anti-Zionist motion.
For instance, Egal informed that a timely complaint had been sent by an ally of Polanski, Andrée Frieze. Conveniently, it came immediately prior to conference taking place. This complaint targeted him for a “conflict of interest” regarding an email sent out requesting members support the motion when it came to a vote. This apparent attack came despite Egal having no involvement in said email, reinforcing the suggestion that tactics are afoot in the Greens which are hostile to anti-Zionist members.
Addressing the “repeated use of accusations of antisemitism” within the Green Party, Egal wrote:
A serious dimension of this pattern has been the repeated use of accusations of antisemitism — deployed not only against me but against many members of this party who oppose Zionism and its racist ideology and practice. For a Black Muslim man raising concerns about racism, governance, and Palestine solidarity, these accusations have taken on a particularly targeted character.
Adding:
Attaching accusations of antisemitism to a Black Muslim member raising concerns about racism and Palestine is not incidental. It is a racialised tactic — one that conflates political opposition to Zionism with hatred of Jewish people, deployed repeatedly to delegitimise my voice and my roles in this party.
Consequently, this situation draws strong similarities to the period under Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour leadership. Corbyn’s Labour saw anti-Zionist socialist members expelled or sidelined due to a politically motivated antisemitism witch-hunt.
This heightens concerns that some within the Greens may be using unfounded allegations of antisemitism to discriminate against Muslim members.
Islamophobia concerns
Furthermore, Muslim members are increasingly facing toxic identity politics in the UK. Labour and right-wing parties have used Muslim communities as a political football, attempting to divide growing grassroots solidarity by portraying them as opposed to LGBTQIA+ people.
According to this open letter, it appears the Greens are not immune to hateful political game-playing either.
Critics have levelled allegations of transphobia against Egal, seemingly because he is a Muslim man:
I am also aware that SOC members who defended the constitution at Spring Conference are being publicly described as transphobes. That characterisation is false. It is another example of identity-based smearing deployed to silence those who challenge power inside this party.
The pattern is consistent: when process and procedure fail to silence dissent, identity-based attacks are deployed instead.
The letter further strengthens the suggestion that he is being targeted for being Muslim, detailing how transphobia allegations were directed at Egal after Joe Hudson-Small, co-chair of the Green Party Council (GPC), told approximately 900 members at the Spring Conference that Egal is “gender critical”:
That is not a neutral description. It is a politically loaded mischaracterisation by a senior party figure that causes direct harm to those named. By the party’s own legal standard, that should have triggered immediate accountability.
Instead there is silence. There is too often silence.
Repair before it is too late, or explain why you won’t
This damning letter drew attention to how these behaviours are increasingly pushing out Black and Brown members, who “no longer believe this party means what it says”. Pointing out that the membership of the Global Majority Greens has reduced, Egal pleaded with the Greens to act:
Trust is not rebuilt with statements. It is rebuilt with action, accountability, and the willingness to confront power internally rather than only performing that confrontation in public.
Opposing the party’s exclusion practices, Egal issued a list of proposed actions, insisting:
The Green Party must now choose what it is. It cannot speak the language of justice while practising exclusion. It cannot claim anti-racism while ignoring the people building anti-racist policy inside its own structures. It cannot call itself a democratic party while treating the decisions of its own membership as advisory.
Egal powerfully finished with a pleading call to action that Green Party leadership must now heed:
Choose justice. Or explain, publicly and in detail, why you will not.
The Green Party had not responded to a request for comment at the time of publication.
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