{"id":14270,"date":"2025-10-09T18:09:42","date_gmt":"2025-10-09T22:09:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tempestmag.org\/?p=14270"},"modified":"2025-10-15T19:28:50","modified_gmt":"2025-10-15T23:28:50","slug":"statement-by-the-committee-to-defend-history-professor-tom-alter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tempestmag.org\/test02\/2025\/10\/statement-by-the-committee-to-defend-history-professor-tom-alter\/","title":{"rendered":"Statement by the Committee to Defend History Professor Tom Alter"},"content":{"rendered":"

On September 10th, 2025, Dr. Tom Alter, a respected and tenured professor of history at Texas State University, was fired for remarks he made at a socialist conference in his capacity as a private citizen.\u00a0 He was fired without due process, a clear violation of both Texas State University policy and Texas state law.\u00a0 Alter is a published labor historian, a popular teacher and adviser, a proud union member, a father of two, and a socialist activist.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Texas State University\u2019s actions represent a blatant attack on Dr. Alter\u2019s First Amendment right to free speech. It is a political move to suppress progressive and leftist thought on campuses. His firing and the stripping away of his and his family\u2019s livelihood is a chilling reminder of the attacks waged on campuses around the country. Alter\u2019s firing constitutes an attack on his fundamental civil liberties, and represents a threat to the democratic rights of all working people.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Committee to Defend Tom Alter demands his immediate reinstatement to his tenured teaching position at Texas State University.\u00a0 We fight for the right of Alter and people everywhere to speak out in support of socialism, the defense of Palestine, LGBTQIA and trans advocacy, anti-racism, and social justice. We are prepared to resist these very real threats by higher education\u00a0 and\u00a0 federal\/state government institutions.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

We call on individuals and organizations\u00a0 of conscience everywhere to join our campaign.\u00a0 If Tom Alter can be fired\u00a0 from his job without due process and be denied\u00a0 his constitutionally-protected right to free speech,\u00a0 this can happen to any of us.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

We invite you to join us in this struggle. An injury to one is an injury to all.<\/span><\/p>\n

Sign the <\/strong>petition here.<\/strong><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

\n

Opinions expressed in signed articles do not necessarily represent the views of the editors or the Tempest Collective. For more information, see \u201cAbout Tempest Collective<\/a>.\u201d<\/em><\/small><\/p>\n

Featured Image credit: Texas State Employees Union<\/a>; modified by Tempest.<\/small><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A call for support for professor fired for speaking at a socialist conference.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":415,"featured_media":14272,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[526,188],"class_list":["post-14270","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-article","tag-academic-freedom","tag-free-speech"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/tempestmag.org\/test02\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Copy-of-tempest_feature_card.jpg-14.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tempestmag.org\/test02\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14270","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tempestmag.org\/test02\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tempestmag.org\/test02\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tempestmag.org\/test02\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/415"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tempestmag.org\/test02\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14270"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tempestmag.org\/test02\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14270\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tempestmag.org\/test02\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14272"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tempestmag.org\/test02\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14270"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tempestmag.org\/test02\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14270"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tempestmag.org\/test02\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14270"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}