Oscar-winning actor and progressive activist Jane Fonda has relaunched the Committee for the First Amendment, a free speech initiative originally spearheaded by her father, Hollywood icon Henry Fonda, in response to the rise of “McCarthyism” during the 1940s.

“The federal government is once again engaged in a coordinated campaign to silence critics in the government, the media, the judiciary, academia, and the entertainment industry,” the committee said in a statement. “We refuse to stand by and let that happen.”

The statement was co-signed by nearly 600 figures in the entertainment industry, including Whoopi Goldberg, Ethan Hawke, Spike Lee, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Aaron Sorkin, Barbra Streisand, Ben Stiller and Kerry Washington.

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