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Dear Progressive reader,
At this time of year, we always send out an online funding appeal to ask for your support.
But in many ways, this year is different from any other in recent memory. The results of the November 5 election will be transformational for this country and our world, but also for The Progressive magazine. For more than 115 years, we have brought you news and information from a progressive perspective, covering the stories that many other publications—especially those with billionaire owners—won’t touch, and bringing reports and analyses of the struggles and victories of grassroots movements.
We will continue to do these things. I want to say “now more than ever” at the end of that sentence. With the rise of an authoritarian-minded right, and the almost unchecked opportunity for those forces to reshape our government and our daily lives, our task here at The Progressive is indeed more important than ever. But I also fear that the difficulty of the task will be greater than ever as well. The costs of producing a bimonthly magazine and hosting a daily news website continue to grow, yet in spite of this, we are committed to bringing you this information, along with inspiration from the struggles for a better world.
We can persist in working to be a voice for peace and social justice only with your generous support. We can’t do it without you.
Throughout our long history, we have continually taken the more difficult path—speaking truth to power, shining a light in the dark, smoke-filled rooms of the policy makers, holding the powerful accountable, and showcasing the efforts of grassroots movements and the victories of everyday people over corporate behemoths.
Today is no different. Our newest issue looks with a careful eye at the wins and losses of the 2024 elections; covers the rise in labor activism across the country; and reports on mutual aid groups helping in the recovery efforts following Hurricane Helene. Plus we offer eight pages of book reviews by our staff and contributors, highlighting our favorite books of 2024.
But most of all, we lean into our proud history of speaking against militarism and violence as a way of solving conflict. As brutal wars are raging in Gaza and in Ukraine, our writers look at the history and root causes of these conflicts, and speak to the need for a ceasefire and a nonviolent resolution. As the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. said more than a half century ago in 1967, “Violence merely increases hate . . . Returning violence for violence multiplies violence.”
The Progressive has been able to keep its independence throughout the years because we have a dedicated group of readers like you that help us to survive with generous donations each year. In 1910, on this magazine’s first anniversary, founder Robert M. La Follette wrote, “The path we have chosen is not strewn with roses. No magazine or newspaper that sets out to speak fearlessly and truthfully about the wrongs committed in the name of Big Business and Big Politics finds the way smooth and the profits certain.”
Your support has allowed, and continues to allow us to speak fearlessly. Your support has allowed and continues to allow this publication to grow and reach out to new audiences. And your support has allowed, and continues to allow our writers to cover the important issues of our time—the wars and the peace movements, the climate crisis and the grassroots response, the politics of hate and the movements for change. Without you, we could not continue; with you, we can continue to do more.
Please click the link below to make a donation today, and please share The Progressive with friends, relatives, and neighbors that you think might want (or need) to hear what is in these pages.
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