More retrospective punishment by right-wing regime – for being a member of a Facebook group
Award-winning filmmaker Hazuan Hashim has been expelled by the Labour party for being a member of a Facebook group about Socialist Appeal, the left activist group summarily ‘proscribed’ – banned – without cause by the Labour party under a misapplication of Labour’s rules against membership of groups that stand candidates against the party. Socialist Appeal had never stood candidates and was dedicated to activism within the party.
Labour has expelled members and supporters of the group even though their membership was before the proscription took place. However, in Hashim’s case the party has exposed its fundamental ignorance of – or more likely disregard for – how Facebook works. On that platform, any contact can add another contact to a group they think might be of interest, so a Facebook user might not even be aware of ‘membership’.
Right-winger Luke Akehurst, now one of the right-wing majority on Labour’s National Executive that is pushing the proscriptions, agreed in 2018 that using membership of a Facebook group to punish or criticise people for developments that took place after they joined it. However, the NEC has now told Hashim that his ‘membership’ of the Facebook group – which began long before Socialist Appeal was proscribed – was grounds for his expulsion:
As well as his film-making and activism in left causes, Liverpool-based Hashim was also instrumental in setting up a programme with the Desmond Tutu, who died on Boxing Day. The programme linked UK schools with schools in the global south – and a young Hashim was pictured with Tutu when it launched:
Hashim and his partner and fellow film-maker Phil Maxwell have long been targeted by the Labour right for standing in solidarity with left activists hounded by Labour’s right-wing regime, with Labour even breaching data protection laws to brief hostile journalists against them. The pair also produce the ‘The Art of Resistance’ programme for the well-known Merseyside Pensioners’ Association.
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