The water crisis plaguing Flint, Michigan is a democracy crisis. Michigan Governor Snyder suspended the democratic process and appointed an emergency manager to rule over Flint residents That manager, Darnell Earley, decided to put the public health at risk in order to save money and make the people of Flint drink from a poisoned water source.
Grassroots activists have been responsible for bringing these facts to light in Flint and around the country - calling for long-term community-controlled solutions, an analysis of the discriminatory nature of the politics surrounding water, an end to the poisoning of the poor, and a rejection of water privatization.
Although Flint is the crisis that has captured the attention of the mainstream media, this fight has been going on for years as activists in cities and towns across the country resist corporate control of their lives and demand democratic resolutions to fiscal mismanagement, racial profiling and discriminatory incarceration practices, access to resources and other issues of critical importance where profits are put before people. Liberty Tree continues its efforts to support the work of grassroots activists promoting local community control, building resources this year through The Next System Teach-Ins and the upcoming 2017 Democracy Convention.
Read on for stories about where the local democracy movement is headed:
