#AllThatsLeftPod: Bad Faith — The Purge That Rehearsed McCarthyism

In 1940, the New York State legislature established the Rapp-Coudert Committee to investigate communist activities among public education workers. For two years, there were hearings focused mainly on the City University of New York (CUNY), especially at City College, but also at Brooklyn College, Hunter College, and Queens College.

Over 500 people were interrogated during the Rapp-Coudert hearings, and more than 50 workers were fire for so-called “conduct unbecoming.” Some were fired because they were outed as communists by colleagues who sold them out, others because they refused to testify at all.

The Rapp-Coudert hearings set the stage for the McCarthy era of intense repression against the U.S. left, particularly those affiliated with the Communist Party. In this sense, McCarthyism was a continuation of previous moments of repression, like the Rapp-Coudert hearings.

This history matters because there are clear parallels between the anti-communism of the 1940s and 50s and today’s attacks on free speech, immigrant students, and, in particular, the movement for Palestinian rights.

In fact, Rapp-Coudert hits particularly close to home when it comes to repression of the Palestine movement, which has been growing since 2023.

Four CUNY faculty members were fired for their pro-Palestine activism in the summer of June 2025 for “conduct unbecoming” — the same charge levied against those targeted by the Rapp-Coudert investigation. Three have been reinstated, but one member is still fighting to regain their job.

The fight for the fired fourth is crucial for students and workers across universities, especially CUNY, to take up. The outcome has stakes for the fight against repression across the country. If teachers can be fired for their political expression on Palestine, it creates a more repressive environment for all political speech on campus.

On today’s episode, Tatiana Cozzrelli interviews Andrew Feffer, author of the book Bad Faith: Teachers, Liberalism, and the Origins of McCarthyism, which is about this two-year witch hunt and the consequences that rippled for decades after. Andrew talks about the context that led up to the Rapp Coudert hearings, including teacher organizing, the rise of fascism, and the New York City political party machine, Tammany Hall. He also explains how the Communist Party defended itself at the time– including the limits and problems in their defense campaign–and the role that liberals played in this witch hunt.

Importantly, Tatiana and Andrew discuss the lessons that this period holds for leftists today.

Andrew Feffer, Bad Faith: Teachers, Liberalism, and the Origins of McCarthyism (New York: Fordham University Press, 2019), 320 pages, $43.

Listen to the episode on Spotify, on Apple Podcasts, on YouTube.