On January 9, 1909, Senator Robert M. La Follette launched La Follette’s Weekly Magazine.

On the very first page of that very first issue, La Follette laid out the fundamental problem of his day—and ours.

“In the course of every attempt to establish or develop free government, a struggle between Special Privilege and Equal Rights is inevitable,” he wrote. “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.”

Yet he was hopeful. “The battle is just on,” he wrote. “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.”

The battle is not so young today. Nor is victory assured. But it remains a glorious privilege to have a free hand in this fight.

This year, for our 100th anniversary, we have great plans in store.

La Follette’s changed its name to The Progressive in 1929, and we’ve pored over every single issue. We’ve selected the most stellar essays, investigative stories, poems, and interviews for a collection called Democracy in Print: The Best of The Progressive, 1909-2009. We’re delighted that the University of Wisconsin Press will be publishing this anthology in the spring.

It contains gems from Jane Addams, James Baldwin, Theodore Dreiser, John Kenneth Galbraith, Molly Ivins, June Jordan, Martin Luther King, Huey Long, Bertrand Russell, Carl Sandburg, Upton Sinclair, Leo Tolstoy, Paul Wellstone, and many more, including some of the leading progressives alive today.

You’ll get a feel for these offerings in April, with our special anniversary issue. We’ll walk you through our pages, year by year, and you’ll be amazed by the people you’ll meet and the inspiration they’ll provide you.

Then on May 1 and May 2, we’re having a conference and bash here in Madison, Wisconsin: “The Progressive Movement, Then and Now.”

We already have an amazing roster of speakers, including Senator Russ Feingold, former Senator George McGovern, and Representatives Tammy Baldwin, Donna Edwards, Keith Ellison, Dennis Kucinich, and Jan Schakowsky.

Our own writers will be well represented, with Ruth Conniff, Will Durst, Barbara Ehrenreich, Jim Hightower, Luis Rodriguez, and Howard Zinn, among others. We’re delighted that the poet Martín Espada will be here, and Cindy Sheehan, too.

And Amy Goodman just let us know that she’s also coming.

To top it off, Robert Redford will give the keynote address on the evening of May 2.

He called the other day.

“This is Robert Redford, and I was told to call you,” he said, when I picked up the phone the other day.

“No shit!” I said, rather inelegantly.

He talked about how lucky the country is to have survived Bush-Cheney, and what a hopeful moment Obama’s election provides. I agreed, and then got to the point: I was just trying to confirm his attendance at our anniversary event.

“I’ll be there with bells on,” he reassured me.

I hope you will be, too. It’s going to be the party of the century—or our century, at least. And you’re invited! Just click here for more info.

Thanks.

And here’s to Fighting Bob La Follette, to The Progressive magazine and all its readers and supporters, and to the progressive movement, alive and well, and kicking hard!