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 Texas State policy and Texas state law, accused Alter of inciting “violence” simply because of his socialist commitments, an echo of McCarthyite and Red Scare tactics. The far-right blogger who targeted Alter describes herself as an “anti-communist cult leader.”

The far right wants to use Alter’s case to widen the net of repression it has already built and cast against Palestinians and anyone else opposed to the current US autocratic order. Alter was fired the same day as Charlie Kirk’s assassination, which has unleashed a massive new wave of repression that has resulted in, so far, more than a hundred workers — from university professors to nurses — losing their jobs for comments related to Kirk. 

But Alter’s fight also shows a way forward for workers seeking to protect themselves in these repressive times. Union organizing has been critical to his defense. The Texas State Employees Union (TSEU), of which Alter is a member, the American Federation of Teachers, the American Association of University Professors, and the Communications Workers of America have all provided legal, political or financial support in Alter’s lawsuit and campaign for full and permanent reinstatement.

Students at Texas State have also rallied to Alter’s defense. The day after he was fired, students held a daylong rally on campus that resulted in one arrest. Student protests in defense of democratic rights continued for five days demanding Alter’s reinstatement.

Alter has also used his case as a public platform to defend his socialist politics and speak against the MAGA-directed repression he’s facing. In an interview in Counterpunch, Alter said:

The far-right conservatives who now govern Texas have a particular view of the world, one driven by capitalist reactionary ideas and profit. Their baseline of society is one that is naturally white, straight, patriarchal, and adherent to a deeply conservative form of Christianity. Everything and everyone else are a threat that must be repressed. Hence they find no contradiction in defending free speech for people calling for attacks on trans people, while denying free speech to students protesting the genocide of Palestinians.

Alter’s fight for his job now enters a new phase. The university has set up a formal hearing that could still result in his permanent firing. The TSEU meanwhile has released a statement calling for a review of President Kelly Damphousse who fired Alter. TSEU rightly called the decision a “glaring error in management and a pattern of decision-making that demands scrutiny.” In fact, a few days after Alter was fired, Damphousse approved the expulsion of a black student for protesting a campus Turning Point USA event honoring Charlie Kirk. A staff member at Texas State was also dismissed for public political views opposing the removal of the student.

Damphousse will also face continued pressure from the conservative leadership of Texas to permanently get rid of Alter. Higher education in the Lone Star State has been on the warpath against free speech, academic freedom, and anything that smacks of “woke” politics. Alter’s firing took place not long after Melissa McCoul was fired from her job at Texas A&M University for attempting to discuss nonbinary gender differences in her classroom. Like Alter, McCoul was the victim of a right-winger’s video recording. McCoul is also considering suing her university.

What is most unique about Alter’s case among the recent wave of academic firings is Alter’s open declaration of socialist politics and his being targeted specifically for those politics. Alter’s talk at the socialist conference condemned capitalist violence against workers. It called for working-class organization and defended the rights of workers to take history into their own hands. In his public statement, Damphousse, without mentioning specifics, accused Alter of “inciting violence” in his comments. This phrase is repeatedly used by far-right politicians around the world in their targeting of left-wing organizing.

In this light, the university’s attempts to declare Alter’s point of view illegal and cause for termination is in line with Trump’s attacks on workers everywhere: from the dismantling of federal employee workers’ rights to attacks on migrant and immigrant labor. In short, the MAGA war is a class war. Tom Alter’s case is a good chance for socialists to make a public stance and potentially win an important case against the bosses.