We, the committee of the Socialist History Society in the UK, condemn the unjust firing of tenured Associate Professor of History Thomas Alter by Texas State University, San Marcos. This unjust firing is reminiscent of the dark days of McCarthyist witch hunts of socialists in the period of the Smith Act – and a threat to the basic human right to freedom of expression and organisation. We stand in solidarity with Professor Thomas Alter, whose work on the local hidden history of the labour and socialist movement in Texas makes a tremendous contribution to wider American history as well as social history as a field, and we join with other associations of historians in demanding his immediate reinstatement.