Jane Fonda pleads with Americans to be strong: “We have to do everything we can to stop what’s happening”
The Oscar-winning actress has announced that she is relaunching a free speech organization founded by her father in 1947.
Actress Jane Fonda announced this week that she is bringing back the Committee for the First Amendment. Her father was part of the group that launched the initiative back in 1947, aiming to address concerns over executive overreach.
A statement signed by more than 600 figures from the entertainment industry explains that the original Committee for the First Amendment was launched during the 1940s, when parts of the federal government “repressed and persecuted American citizens for their political beliefs.”
“The McCarthy era ended when Americans from across the political spectrum finally came together and stood up for the principles in the Constitution against the forces of repression,” the statement adds.
Speaking this week, Fonda said: “This administration is moving fast, which means we have to move fast. We have to do everything we can to stop what’s happening, before it becomes the norm, before it becomes institutionalized.”
Last month, in the aftermath of the assassination of right-wing activist Charlie Kirk, talk show host Jimmy Kimmel was taken off-air for comments made on his show. The move was welcomed by President Donald Trump, who later threatened ABC for deciding to bring Kimmel back.
For those in the reintroduced Committee for the First Amendment, these experiences have worrying parallels to other authoritarian moves in U.S. history. Influential figures are trying to use their positions to fight back against a rising tide of authoritarian sentiment.
Fonda went into greater detail during an appearance on CNN’s Inside Politics. She said: “This is a very chilling time. You know, we’ve faced attempts at autocracy before in the ’20s and ’30s, and you’ve cited the example of McCarthyism. There was Jim Crow. This is different, and we should all be very scared, and the key is solidarity.”
“And so, that’s why I thought to resurrect the spirit of the committee that was started in the ’50s, and it included my father, within the entertainment industry. This is contained within — we want to work cross-sectorally with other people because, obviously, a lot of other people are affected by what’s happening,” Fonda added.
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