As good a definition of progressivism as any

I'm currently reading Robert Fisher's edited volume of essays, "The People Shall Rule: ACORN, Community Organizing, and the Struggle for Economic Justice" (Vanderbilt University Press). In one essay professor Peter Dreier provides a strong notion of progressivism which can serve as stack pole to structure action on the left:

The purpose of progressive politics and movements is to reduce the level of class, racial, and gender inequality in the nation, shrink the number of people living in poverty, promote sustainable growth, and promote peace and human rights at home and overseas.

I get wrongly accused by another blogger in particular for arbitrarily defining what liberalism should mean. Dreier's explanation captures most of the moral principles I have in mind when I argue that certain actions are progressive and others are not.