La Follette’s Weekly Magazine

The Progressive

October 2002 cover
Editor	Ruth Conniff
Categories	Politics, culture
Frequency	Monthly
Publisher	Progressive, Inc.
Founder	Robert M. La Follette, Sr.
Year founded	1909 (as La Follette's Weekly)
First issue	1929 (as The Progressive)
Country	United States
Based in	Madison, Wisconsin
Language	English
Website	www.progressive.org
ISSN	0033-0736
OCLC number	531780706

The Progressive is an American monthly magazine of politics, culture and progressivism with a pronounced liberal perspective. Founded in 1909 by Senator Robert "Fighting Bob" La Follette, it was originally called La Follette's Weekly and then simply La Follette's. In 1929, it was recapitalized and had its name changed to The Progressive; for a period The Progressive was co-owned by the La Follette family and William Evjue's newspaper The Capital Times. Its headquarters is in Madison, Wisconsin.

The magazine is known for its strong pacifism. It devotes much coverage to combating war, militarism, and corporate power. It supports civil rights and civil liberties, women's rights, LGBT rights, immigrant rights, labor rights, human rights, environmentalism, criminal justice reform, and democratic reform. Its current Editor-in-Chief is Ruth Conniff. Previous editors included Fighting Bob La Follette, his son Robert Jr., William Evjue, Morris Rubin, Erwin Knoll and Matthew Rothschild.

On the first page of its first issue, La Follette wrote this introduction to the magazine:

In the course of every attempt to establish or develop free government, a struggle between Special Privilege and Equal Rights is inevitable. Our great industrial organizations [are] in control of politics, government, and natural resources. They manage conventions, make platforms, dictate legislation. They rule through the very men elected to represent them. The battle is just on. It is young yet. It will be the longest and hardest ever fought for Democracy. In other lands, the people have lost. Here we shall win. It is a glorious privilege to live in this time, and have a free hand in this fight for government by the people.

Some of the campaigns The Progressive has waged include the fight to stay out of World War I, opposition to the Palmer Raids in the early 1920s and calling for action against unemployment during the Depression. La Follette's wife Belle edited the publication's women's section, and also wrote articles for the publication condemning racial segregation.