The organized leftist campaign to radicalize American workers has outed itself in Texas. On September 8, independent journalist Karlyn Borysenko, who focuses her work on the “radical revolutionary far left in America,” posted a video of Texas State University Professor Tom Alter speaking at a virtual “Revolutionary Socialism Conference.” He called for the overthrow of the US government and was subsequently fired. But don’t worry about him – he’s being aggressively backed by a prominent local union affiliated with one of the largest labor organizations in the nation.
“Without organization, how can anyone expect to overthrow the most bloodthirsty, profit-driven, mad organization in the history of the world, that of the US government?” Alter asked aloud to his “comrades” hosting the discussion.
Yes, the professor was calling for a communist revolution in America.
Quickly terminated from his post, Alter immediately found himself with a powerful supporter in the form of the Texas State Employees Union (TSEU).
“Dr. Alter, a beloved professor known for his scholarship in US labor and social movement history, received no due process,” a TSEU petition demanding his reinstatement reads. “This is exactly what the First Amendment protects against,” union President Ilesa Daniels Ross declared. “No public employee should fear losing their job because they expressed personal views outside of work. Texas State University’s decision sends a chilling message to every faculty member, staff member, and student: your livelihood can be taken away if political actors don’t like what you say on your own time.”
Ross reflected a sliver of understanding that Alter’s words may be perceived as being beyond the pale by weakly acknowledging in a TSEU Facebook post that “hateful rhetoric that incites violence is not protected speech” before quickly adding that “nothing Dr. Alter said comes close to that standard.”
Publicly urging the toppling of the American republic via revolution modeled on the Soviet bloodbaths of the 20th century… how can that possibly be construed as posing a threat? While Alter may indeed have a constitutional right to be a committed revolutionary communist, that only goes up the point where he spurs on or commits an act of violence.
The Texas AFL-CIO, Lone Star State branch of one of the most powerful unions in America, has also defended Alter. It accused Republican Gov. “Greg Abbott and other elected officials” of “applying political pressure to punish people for sharing the ‘wrong’ political opinions.”
Communist revolution isn’t a menace to the Texas AFL-CIO, it’s merely “an opinion on matters of civil discourse,” as the union quotes Texas American Federation of Teachers President Zeph Capo saying while expressing its outrage over Alter’s dismissal.
Now for the big non-surprise: Marxist agitators are seeking to harness the organized labor movement to foment a leftist social revolution in the US. Yes, that is a well-worn fact of history, but how many Americans understand just how active and deeply embedded the effort remains today?
The Texas State Employees Union is part of the Communications Workers of America, which claims 700,000 members “comprised of media, telecommunications, healthcare, higher education, and public employees.”
Since 2013, the union has run a highly effective and well-respected (in leftist circles) “CWA Political Activist Training” program. “This program serves membership who crave a deeper understanding of the political structures that impact our economic and social reality and how we can begin to build a working-class movement that will transform this country so that everyone can live a life with dignity and justice,” a page on the CWA website declares.
Leftist class warfare is the stated goal.
The training program “has yielded a surge in the number of CWA activists, skills of these activists, people-power-building through our Political Action Fund (PAF), major local elections wins for progressive candidates who support CWA, and the working class struggle,” the union boasts. “We seek to build up a movement that fights on all fronts and all issues that impact the working class, from collective bargaining to voting rights, racial and gender justice, LGBTQIA rights and respect for the earth we live on. There are many fronts we must fight on, but one movement we are a part of.”
Terms such as “class struggle” and the concept of class war are an unmistakable core staple of Marxist dialect. Again, we stress: This is a labor union that has nearly three quarters of a million American workers under its umbrella.
The CWA Political Training program has proven so successful that the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation, a leading European leftist organization, has cited it as the inspiration for a similar campaign among organized labor outfits in the UK.
“The program combines tactical training with lessons on the history and importance of the labor movement, with the aim of politicizing unionists,” the overtly socialist foundation states.
The drive to spark a progressive workers’ rising in America is operating at full steam. In June, the CWA Public, Healthcare & Education Workers (PHEW) held its 2025 annual conference. Legislative and Political Workshop Session One was tilted “The On-Going Class War: Public Sector Edition.”
PHEW claims to represent “more than 140,000 members from coast to coast in state and local government, and healthcare.”
Would you like, coffee, tea or Antifa? The CWA’s Association of Flight Attendants’ President Sara Nelson said this while expressing her support for then-President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris in July 2024:
“Let me be perfectly clear. Joe Biden has done more for working people and the labor movement than any President since FDR. It’s time to move forward in unity and do the work to defeat fascism.”
Why do stewardesses feel the need to spout the incendiary language of international communism? CWA’s AFA says it represents 50,000 flight attendants.
This is the larger edifice of which the Texas State Employees Union in only a part. How could a local labor union affiliated with the Communications Workers of America possibly see anything wrong with openly espousing communist revolution in the US when its national parent is actively working to carry out a similar subversive upheaval itself?