In Texas, a socialist professor is now in the fight of his life against MAGA’s New McCarthyism. Tom Alter, a labor historian and tenured professor of history at Texas State University, was fired from his job on September 10 after a far-right troll doctored a videotape of Alter speaking at a virtual Revolutionary Socialism conference. After viewing the video, university president Kelly Damphousse fired Alter on September 10 with what Alter and his supporters say was no due process.
In his conference talk, Alter called for independent working-class political action and the need for working-class people to organize in a socialist party. In his remarks, Alter also explicitly criticized tactics like spontaneous violence sometimes associated with anarchist groups. Yet the right-wing activist doctored the video to make it appear that Alter was, in fact, endorsing those tactics.
A wide-scale grassroots campaign for Alter led by unions, students, and activists won a significant but temporary victory on September 26 when a judge ordered Alter temporarily reinstated.
But the fight is not over. Under the reinstatement, Alter is not allowed to teach classes. The university will now begin a formal process that could result in Alter being fired permanently.
It’s no surprise Alter would fall within the MAGA crosshairs. His historical scholarship, influenced by the legendary American socialist Eugene Debs, has made him a target of the Right. Alter’s book, Toward a Cooperative Commonwealth: Transplanted Roots of Farmer-Labor Radicalism in Texas, details the history of working-class-based agrarian radicalism in Texas from the 1840s to the 1920s. Since Alter’s firing, he has drawn support from major academic organizations like the American Historical Association and Labor and Working Class History Association.
Alter’s case is a bellwether for socialists everywhere. Texas State president Kelly Damphousse, who allegedly fired Alter in violation of…
Auteur: Bill V. Mullen
