As we have every September since 2002, thousands of people who take democracy seriously and like to have fun will gather in Baraboo this Saturday, Sept. 12, for a Fighting Bob Fest.

The event is named for Robert "Fighting Bob" La Follette, the Wisconsin governor and U.S. senator who founded the Progressive Party and battled the robber barons to reform our government when it was its most corrupt. "People before Big Money" was La Follette's credo, and it is for Fighting Bob Fest organizers too.

But we do not gather every year to simply commemorate La Follette. We do it to pick up where he left off and continue the fight.

This year's Bob Fest is coming on the heels of President Barack Obama's most important health care address to the nation. Everyone who attends Bob Fest will hear speeches from U.S. Sens. Tom Harkin and Bernie Sanders, Congresswoman Tammy Baldwin, and former health care insider-turned-whistle-blower Wendell Potter. These are the people leading the effort to deliver health care reform that puts people before Big Money - perhaps the most important fight of our lifetimes - and they will all be in Baraboo on Saturday.

Eight years ago, Hiroshi Kano and a group of survivors from the battle against the bottling company Perrier met in Wisconsin Dells to review that successful effort and plan for future encounters with corporate giants. We all wanted to build a coordinated force to oppose unwanted factory farms, ethanol plants, transmission lines, sprawl, Wal-Marts and other environmental threats.

Whatever the issue, we believed, local citizen groups should not have to start from scratch. Progressive health care reformers in Madison can benefit from the experience of activists in La Crosse. Environmental activists in Portage can lend a hand to citizen groups in Spring Green. People from Racine can walk the picket lines in Dover to stop an ethanol plant.

Fighting Bob Fest and FightingBob.com were the answer. We decided in 2002 to start meeting every year and bringing together people who subscribe to the philosophy of People before Big Money.

Fighting Bob Fest is now the largest annual outdoor political festival in the United States, drawing participants from throughout the nation and all over the world. In addition to speakers like Harkin, Sanders, Baldwin and Potter, we'll have Jim Hightower, Congresswoman Gwen Moore, Jeremy Scahill, Greg Palast and other fighters. We will also have lots of music, food, beer, poetry, small-group workshops, exhibits and great conversation.

See you on Saturday. Come to a festival and join a fight.

Ed Garvey is a Madison lawyer, political activist and the editor of the fightingbob.com Web site. comments@fightingbob.com

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