If we lose free speech, we lose freedom of the press and freedom of association as well as our ability to address grievances. Image by Getty and Unsplash .

In the wake of Charlie Kirk’s assassination, the Trump administration has launched a McCarthyite assault on freedom of speech. The government, corporations, and institutions have censured, suspended, and fired workers from Jimmy Kimmel to the Washington Post’s only Black woman columnist Karen Attiah and others in almost every imaginable occupation for telling jokes, making statements, or posting critical comments on social media.

Even before Kirk’s assassination, the New McCarthyism was gaining steam. In one of the worst instances, Texas State University fired tenured professor Tom Alter for the crime of speaking at an online socialist conference. Far right grifter and self-declared “anti-communist cult leader” Karlyn Borysenko violated the conference’s protocols, recorded Alter’s speech, edited it to distort his comments, and shared her doctored video on social media, which then went viral.

President Kelly Damphousse responded by summarily firing Alter without due process, violating his First Amendment rights and academic freedom. Alter is a beloved teacher, author of the widely acclaimed book Toward a Cooperative Commonwealth: The Transplanted Roots of Farmer-Labor Radicalism in Texas, and a member of the Texas State Employee Union.

CounterPunch’s Ashley Smith here interviews Alter about his firing and the campaign to overturn his dismissal and reinstate him with full pay and benefits and without censure or restrictions.

You have just been fired from Texas State University for speaking at a socialist conference. What happened? What was the university’s justification for firing you? Has discipline or firing of this sort ever happened before? Isn’t this a threat to First Amendment rights and academic freedom for everyone?

On September 7, I participated in the online Revolutionary Socialism Conference. I gave a talk during the session titled “Building Revolutionary Organization Today.” At the beginning of my talk, I identified myself as a member of Socialist Horizon and the Texas State Employees Union (TSEU). I consciously did not identify myself as a faculty member or employee of Texas State University (TXST) during my talk. I gave the talk over Zoom, from my home, on a Sunday morning, during my own time.

Unbeknownst to conference participants and in violation of the conference rules of no recording or streaming, an online social media grifter recorded the conference. This person is a self-described fascist with horribly antisemitic and anti-queer views. The next day the fascist grifter called a campaign for my firing from TXST.

Two days later, while I was at my son’s soccer practice, I received a text from a local San Marcos community activist group chat drawing my attention to TXST President Kelly Damphousse’s public statement announcing my immediate termination. That’s how I found out I was fired. Damphousse stated that he “was informed about controversial statements that were made by one of our faculty members at a conference” and accused me of “inciting violence.”

Upon seeing this I immediately returned home and found that I had been cut-off from my TXST email. I later found an email from the university Provost in my personal email notifying me of my termination. The provost’s email also refers to my participation “at a recent conference.”

After a review of the conference video, the university determined that I “have engaged in conduct that jeopardizes the health and safety of our university community. You have also engaged in conduct that reflects inappropriate and poor judgement as a faculty member at Texas State University.” The reasons outlined in the provost’s email are the University’s justifications for firing me.

Repression of academic freedom, even that of tenured professors, is not something new in the US. What makes my case different is that there was no due process, not even a predetermined sham process. I was a tenured professor at a public university; this entitles me to due process according to TXST policy and state law.

This is in addition to protections afforded to me and all Americans by federal Constitutional rights. My firing is a threat to everyone’s first amendment rights and specifically all educators’ academic freedom. If I can be fired without due process and in violation of my democratic rights, then all our democratic rights are in serious........

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