The Progressive

"The Progressive" is an American monthly magazine of politics and culture with a pronounced leftist perspective. Known for its pacifism, it has strongly opposed military interventions, such as the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003. The magazine also devotes much coverage to civil rights, civil liberties, and environmentalism. It has opposed nuclear weapons from August 1945 to the present.

History

"The Progressive" was founded in January 9, 1909, by U.S. Senator Robert M. La Follette, Sr. of Wisconsin. It was first called "La Follette's Weekly"; in 1929, its name was changed to "The Progressive". [cite news
last = Thelen
first = David P.
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title = La Follette, Robert M
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publisher = Encyclopaedia Brittanica Online
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url = http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/326297/Robert-M-La-Follette/4010/Anti-war-position#ref=ref156562
accessdate = 2008-07-09]

The campaigns "The Progressive" has led include the fight to stay out of World War I, opposition to the Palmer Raids in the early 1920s, calling for action against unemployment during the Depression, exposing McCarthyism in the 1950s, and denouncing U.S. involvement in Indochina.

In the 1960s, it was a leading voice in the American civil rights movement, publishing the writing of Martin Luther King Jr. five times, and publishing James Baldwin's open letter "My Dungeon Shook - Letter to my Nephew on the One Hundredth Anniversary of Emancipation," the first section of "The Fire Next Time". In the 1970s, the magazine devoted attention to the emerging environmentalist movement, beginning with a special Earth Day issue in 1970 entitled "The Crisis of Survival."

In 1979, "The Progressive" won national attention for its article by Howard Morland, "The H-bomb Secret: How we got it and why we're telling it," which the U.S. government suppressed for six months. The magazine prevailed in a landmark First Amendment case, "United States v. The Progressive", was overturned a prior restraint.

In the 1980s, it published stories about U.S. support for death squads in Central America. During the 1990s, "The Progressive" campaigned on behalf of immigrants, women on welfare, LGBT social movements, and prisoners. In recent years, it worked to end the economic sanctions on Iraq, to prevent U.S. involvement in the Colombian civil war, to adopt a more liberal policy toward drugs, and to institute public funding of political campaigns.

WXXM-FM in Madison, Wisconsin, an Air America Radio affiliate, features a "Progressive Radio" show with Matthew Rothschild. The half-hour show is broadcast on terrestrial and Internet radio stations across the country, as is a daily audio editorial, The Progressive Point of View, which features Rothschild.

Contributors

Throughout the years, "The Progressive" has published leading social critics such as Jane Addams, Helen Keller, Jack London, Clarence Darrow, Upton Sinclair, Lincoln Steffens, Carl Sandburg, George Orwell, Mike Males, A.J. Muste, James Baldwin, I.F. Stone, June Jordan, Noam Chomsky, Edward Said, Nat Hentoff, Milton Mayer, and Molly Ivins.It has also published liberal politicians such as Adlai Stevenson, J. William Fulbright, George McGovern, Russ Feingold, Paul Wellstone, Dennis Kucinich and Bernie Sanders. [cite news
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title = The Progressive Magazine to Celebrate Its 90th Anniversary in January
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publisher = Common Dreams NewsWire
date = 1998-10-18
url = http://www.commondreams.org/pressreleases/Nov%2098/111898h.htm
accessdate = 2008-07-09]

Currently, the magazine's regular contributors include David Barsamian, Kate Clinton, Susan Douglas, Will Durst, Barbara Ehrenreich, Eduardo Galeano, Fred McKissack, John Nichols, Adolph L. Reed, Jr., and Howard Zinn.

The editor of "The Progressive" is Matthew Rothschild. Its editorial offices are in Madison, Wisconsin.

References

External links

* [http://www.progressive.org/ Official website]