Howard Fast was an extraordinary American writer and screenwriter. In 1950, he was imprisoned for refusing to hand over to the House Un-American Activities Committee a list of members of the organization known as the Joint Antifascist Refugee Committee.
At the height of McCarthyism, as he recalls in the introduction to his novel *Spartacus*, “with Francisco Franco’s victory over the legally constituted Spanish Republic, thousands of Republican soldiers, defenders of the Republic, and their families had crossed the Pyrenees to head for France, and a large number of them had settled in Toulouse, many of them sick or wounded. Their situation was desperate. A group of anti-fascists raised money to buy an old convent and turn it into a hospital, and the Quakers agreed to work at that hospital if we could raise the money to keep it running.” He refused to reveal the names of his comrades and ended up in prison.
His experience behind bars was harrowing. “There, on long benches, sat a hundred men—black and white—all naked. They sat dejected, hunched over, and with their heads bowed, evoking images of the World War II extermination camps. Now they are stripping us of the dignity to which we clung so desperately.” In prison, he worked on parts of the novel about the Trician slave who led the most significant rebellion against the mighty Roman Empire.
McCarthyism was a tragedy for the United States. “Those were bad times—the worst times my beloved wife and I have ever lived through. Our country resembled a police state more than at any other time in its history. J. Edgar Hoover, the director of the FBI, played the role of a petty dictator. Fear of Hoover and his files on thousands of liberals permeated the country. No one dared to speak out or raise their voice against our imprisonment,” he recalls in the introduction to his book. Many left-wing Americans were forced to seek refuge in Mexico.
A member of the Communist Party of the United States, he left that organization following the Secret Report released at the 20th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.In 1949, his extraordinary book *Tom Paine, the Citizen* was removed from New York school libraries. Under government pressure, seven publishers refused to publish *Spartacus*. He published it independently in 1951. It became a bestseller and a symbol of resistance to the anti-communist witch hunt. It was translated into 56 languages.
Nearly 10 years later, defying the blacklists and with a screenplay by fellow communist Dalton Trumbo—another victim of McCarthyism—Kirk Douglas brought it to the big screen under the Universal banner. In his book *I Am Spartacus*, he recounts the story of the film’s production.
According to Douglas, “The 1950s were years of fear and paranoia. Back then, the enemy was the communists. Now, the enemy is terrorists. The names change, but the fear remains. Politicians further exacerbate that fear, and the media exploits it. They benefit from keeping us afraid. The first U.S. president I voted for was Franklin Roosevelt. He said, ‘The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.’”
And he explains: “Even today, there are still those who try to justify the blacklists. They say they were necessary to protect the United States. They say the only people who were harmed were our enemies. They’re lying. Innocent men, women, and children had their lives ruined because of this national catastrophe. I know. I was there. I saw it happen.”
As if the historical memory of that catastrophe had vanished, McCarthyism is back in the United States. The specter of communism is once again being stirred up as a grave danger, when—except for China, Vietnam, Cuba, and a few other countries that can be counted on one hand—no other government claims to be communist, and national liberation movements for the most part follow institutional channels.
An example of the return of McCarthyism is the Ministerial Meeting on the Resurgence of Political Terrorism, held on July 16 in Washington, D.C. Among other U.S. officials, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent, and National Security Advisor Stephen Miller participated, along with representatives from more than 60 countries in the Americas, Europe, and Asia.
In his speech at the meeting’s opening session, Secretary Rubio asserted that “far-left political terrorism is neither a recent nor a modern phenomenon. It is not a fiction invented by conservative politicians (…) It is a distinct and unique evil. It is a revolt of the worst against the best, a revolt of the weak and the cowards against the good and the strong (…) They may call themselves anti-capitalists, anti-imperialists, communists, anarchists, or Marxists. But their fundamental nature is always the same.”
The backdrop to the new anti-communist crusade is the U.S. debacle in Iran, which it seeks to cover up with the usual Trumpist mantras of always going on the offensive and never admitting defeat. The rise and volatility of gas prices—which have reached $4 a gallon—have sparked discontent toward the government. According to the latest polls, only one in six Americans strongly supports Donald Trump, while he has lost support even among his own supporters. The MAGA coalition is concerned about the high likelihood that Democrats will win control of the House of Representatives in the November elections. And, as if that weren’t enough, the Democratic Socialists are gaining ground.
Neo-McCarthyism is spreading dangerously and aggressively across the United States. It is time to remember Howard Fast, Dalton Trumbo, and all those who stood up to it in their day. It is time for the return of Spartacus.
Original text by Luís Hernández Navarro published in La Jornada on July 21st, 2026.
Translation by Schools for Chiapas.