Above photo: Workers’ Voice.
Repression of academic freedom continues to spread around the country.
A professor in Texas was fired without due process for a speech given at a virtual socialist conference.
Many people in the United States and around the world were watching the news very intently on September 10, but they could be forgiven for not knowing that a Texas professor was illegally fired for his political views, as it wasn’t much reported on, even in Texas.
History professor Thomas Alter was terminated after being accused by Texas State University president Kelly Damphousse of “conduct that advocates for inciting violence.” This politically motivated firing, while outrageous, is sadly becoming less and less unprecedented — it’s part of a new McCarthyism in American higher education.
The university said the illegal firing was the result of comments made by Alter at the virtual Revolutionary Socialism Conference. The conference was organized by Firebrand, Socialist Horizon, and the International Socialist League in early September, and was geared towards the formation of a revolutionary party. It was infiltrated by self-proclaimed fascist Karlyn Borysenko, who then started a smear campaign against Alter on her website. The situation escalated when the story was picked up by Texas Scorecard, which evidently prompted university administration to cease its investigation, which is mandated by both Texas state law and university bylaw, and unilaterally terminated Alter.
His constitutionally protected speech — which obviously doesn’t incite violence, and is actually critical of risky or dangerous tactics — articulates the real violence that the capitalist state imposes on us. Alter highlighted the attacks on youth and minorities and the perils of the mental health epidemic within the broader current capitalist crisis. It’s a good speech, and one that would resonate with most people. He correctly refers to the U.S. government as being the most bloodthirsty and profit-driven organization in history.
It’s important to orient this collegiate hit job within the broader context of the Far Right’s crackdowns on free speech. Targeting dissenting speech is a time-honored tradition in their playbook, and they’ve long attacked progressives under the guise of fighting things like “wokeness,” “critical race theory,” and “gender ideology.” This context also includes the current wave of draconian repression, which is only increasing with the weaponization of the Kirk assassination. Attacks like these are symbolic of a regime in crisis, because a secure power wouldn’t be worried about what professors say and do, and they’ll likely continue as the neoliberal consensus unravels, resulting in messy firings like this.
In this vein, the president of Texas A&M University stepped down after a couple tumultuous weeks following his unprecedented firing of a professor, a dean, and a department chair due to a student filming the professor discussing gender. While a specific reason for his resignation has not been given, we can speculate that the anger of students, faculty, and the community likely played a significant part. This reminds us that resistance is popular and effective, as we are also seeing in the campaign for the CUNY Fired Four in New York City. This campaign was relatively unknown a few months ago, and has grown rapidly through careful planning and enthusiastic reception, even receiving support from mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani and progressive fixture Bernie Sanders. As this repression expands, so too must our resistance.
The students and faculty in Texas, New York, and beyond must unite and fight. This requires a sober analysis of what we’re up against. State employees, in particular, have every reason to fear for their jobs, but we must also remember that McCarthyism was able to take root because it wasn’t resisted sufficiently from the outset.
In Alter’s case, students have already organized a protest, the union is circulating a petition, and progressive organizations like Austin DSA are voicing support, but further strategic organizing will be essential. Alter is rightly suing the university, and this symbolic victory would be great for free speech, but it’s a calculated risk for the administration and will hardly suffice to compensate for him losing his job.
We can’t sue our way to academic freedom. We need to seize upon this moment to unite our struggles, learn from each other, and draw attention to what these administrations hope to quietly sweep under the rug. These campaigns have profound potential to expand beyond the defense of students and faculty to include even greater demands, like providing job protection and equal pay for all full-time and adjunct faculty, making colleges tuition free, and ultimately the very revolutionary aspirations put forward by Alter. In this spirit, we loudly demand: defend Tom Alter and all other students and faculty facing political repression!
