here_and_now past i'm giving a paper next month on local politics and resistance, at the community level. it takes on the problem from a historical point of view, to struggles in the 60s and 70s by civic authority to impose high modern ideals on urban linguistic minorities. the more i think about it, the same labeling tactics that partially failed in those days still exist. the community i look at is fighting the same fights and is slowly being worn down by the relentless nimby-based attacks of anglo-suburbanites. each side has its share of wounds and small victories, but short of provincially and federally mandated public work projects in the coming years it looks as if the city is preparing a death blow to this neighbourhood (perhaps an exaggeration, but a community can only resist for so long--especially when it is legislatively divided against it self as has been increasingly occurring). i went to a talk last term about political and social history. the speaker was a self-avowed marxist, and only saw materialist histories and marxist causes as legitimate. i think this struggle stands in his face of his radicalism and asserts the very political nature of our historical imaginings and remembrance, especially at the local levels. (though also at the regional, provincial, and national levels too, however those groups of schools and other institutions and therefore have an easier go at using this kind of power.) my paper, in my mind, has ceased to be a historical statement and has turned into a contemporary political stand. perhaps it is in part due to my apparent simmering radicalism in the face of concession bargaining that defines this city these days that are now deceptively masked in economic terms (which, as a politically aware historian, i know is bullshit, the demands are always on the table). in any case, the past is something to be fought here_and_now. it is who we are, and its struggles are our own. by claiming the language and media to define ourselves, we can save our communities and provide the social and cultural soil in which we can thrive in our own place on our own terms. as long as we stand up, holding the past and present together, we can defend our place and our dignities. 090110 what's it to you? who go blather from