Jane Fonda took aim at the blockbuster Paramount-WBD mega-merger and what she described as government efforts to silence free speech on Sunday night (June 14) at the all-star Rise Up, Sing Out: A Concert For the First Amendment event at New York’s Town Hall. The gathering organized by the Committee For the First Amendment — a group originally formed in 1947 during the McCarthy Red-scare era that included Fonda’s father, actor Henry Fonda — featured a fiery speech from the 80 For Brady actress, as well as performances from Bette Midler, Rufus Wainwright and Patti Smith.

“Right now, the government and its cronies [are] routinely violating its First Amendment to silence artists,” Fonda said before enumerating a list of actions taken by the Trump administration and its right-wing supporters. “Shuttering institutions like the Kennedy Center, defunding museums and the National Endowment of the Arts, and banning books, canceling TV, hosts who speak out. It’s really bad. And it’s being allowed by cowardly corporations. I’m not gonna name names right now. But I am honored now to pass the mic to artists and activists who continue to speak up and sing out so that we might be inspired to rise up.”

Fonda warned that such actions will lead to a “very thinned-out kind of culture,” one where freedom of expression, independence and a variety of viewpoints in the news will disappear. The actress also explained why she revived the Committee in October, saying that she sought to bring her entertainment industry peers together at a time when “our democracy is in peril. In the face of what’s happening, we need our industry to be unified, activated and unwilling to engage in anticipatory obedience. We stand together in defense of our right to free expression. They come for one of us, by God, they come for all of us.”

Her comments about a potentially diminished culture came just two days after the U.S. Justice Department cleared the way for Paramount’s acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery — the parent company of CNN — over the objections of critics who worry that the consolidation of the two companies by the Trump-friendly Ellison family might lead to political interference and a change in editorial independence at the 24-our news network founded by Fonda’s ex, late billionaire Ted Turner.

Frequent Trump critic Robert De Niro doubled-down on that red flag warning, opening with a joke about the president’s 80th birthday party White House lawn UFC match on Sunday. “Good evening everyone, and welcome to all of you who couldn’t get tickets to the White House cage fight,” De Niro said. “I’m devoted to our Constitution’s First Amendment … I’m pretty close to being a free speech absolutist, even for speech I don’t like, and there’s plenty of that around. So when I hear something I don’t like, I use my own free speech to respond. Let me give you an example. When I hear Trump say, as he did a few days ago, ‘I don’t think about Americans financial situation’ … I say, ‘Shut the f–k up!'”

Midler said she was overjoyed to be part of a community that’s “so bright, so intelligent, so well-meaning … so desperate for justice,” before performing a fiddle-flecked cover of Woody Guthrie’s “All You Fascists,” adding in some of her own topical lyrics. “Hey there all you fascists, let me put you straight/ When you come for the rest of us we’ll fight you at the gate/ And you will lose, you fascists bound to lose/ We’ll battle ICE together until they cut and run/ Just like in Minneapolis and when the midterms come/ You’re bound to lose, you fascists bound to lose,” she sang.

In other lyrics taking on the second Trump administration’s aggressive immigration enforcement actions, the revamped lyrics also touched on “cowards who hide behind their masks,” as well as what Midler deemed as attempts to “distract us from the Epstein files,” in reference to the millions of documents pertaining to late convicted sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein that feature more than a thousand mentions close friend Trump; Trump has not been implicated in any of Epstein’s crimes and has denied knowledge of them.

Broadway star Sasha Allen (MJ The Musical) sang a stirring version of Sam Cooke’s iconic civil rights anthem “A Change Is Gonna Come,” while YouTuber Ms. Rachel was joined by a choir of kids on an original song written with immigrant children detained at the Dilley Detention Facility in Texas, “I’ll Sing From Here.”

Wainwright prefaced his haunting piano and voice performance of “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” by noting that Fonda asked him to say that the person the song was written for, Judy Garland, was a charter member of the original Committee and that the lyricist, Yip Harburg, was blacklisted for his refusal to identify purported Communists in Hollywood for the House Un-American Activities Committee in 1950.

He was followed by punk godmother Smith, who performed her 1988 protest classic “People Have the Power,” with the night’s musical portion ending with the Broadway Inspirational Voices and Kayla Davion singing a song from the Tony-winning suffragists musical Suffs, “Keep Marching” in the theater built by suffragists more than 100 years ago.

Among the other artists and activists who spoke at the event were Julia Roberts, Tessa Thompson, Lily Gladstone, Ayo Edebiri, RuPaul’s Drag Race‘s Miss Peppermint, Wilson Cruz, Joy Reid and others.

Watch the full event below.

Get weekly rundowns straight to your inbox

Sign Up