Building on Those Before Us: Why Knowing Your Community’s History Matters

 

The following is a transcript of the video above, from our webinar on “Remaking the Economy: Advocacy and Community: The Delicate Balance.” View the full webinar here.

Julia Ho: 57:01-58:37

For me, it’s really important to know the history of what you’re doing, where you are, from many different levels. If you’re trying to do something in your city, has someone else tried to do that before? What happened, where did it go? Are those people still around? Oftentimes, when there is a long fight to be had, there have been people, you know, who might not be as prominent anymore or active anymore, who spent years trying to get this thing done. Where are they, and how can we learn from them? So, learning from elders in movement, or people who have tried the thing that you’re doing before, and then zooming out and studying it from a broad perspective—and building our own political understanding of the strategies that have been used by people, and by movements, to address this particular issue. Where have they gone? And then even looking from a global perspective.

So, obviously, that’s a lot of knowledge and information to try and use to inform your understanding. But it’s critical, and it’s something that many of us have to build, that understanding, together or alone within our communities. Because we’re not getting that history from public education, or from wherever. Most of the time, we’re not getting that. And so, it actually does take an active effort on our part to make sure that whenever we undertake something, that we understand where it came from. Who are the other people that have tried it?