Well, yeah Kim, you do have a right to belong to whatever political party you choose...sort of. But wasn't the Communist party actually illegal in the USA at that time? Which doesn't speak real highly of the right to express dissent, in real terms, in that society. (Think it was outlawed in Canada too, later--fuzzy on dates, but I'm not trying to be nationalistic here.)

John Hardly has defined two factions, but as Trotsky points out, there was a much broader spectrum of aims and desires within the general frame of the Marxist left, and the McCarthy hearings, dealing as they were in rumour and guilt-by-association, affected a great many people who were in no way Marxists or Communists. If you got called to testify, it put you in a very difficult spot whatever your beliefs or affiliations.

By the way, in Canada one can be forced to testify against onesself, if one chooses to appear as a witness at one's own trial. I found that out the hard way...we ain't got no Fifth!

....or Sixth, or Seventh, or Eighth....

Willie-O