In these two reports from American media outlet Democracy Now!, hear Flint residents and autoworkers tell the real story of what has happened to this majority African-American city, and home of the 1936-37 Flint sit-down strike that defeated General Motors, the largest corporation in the world.
The poisoning of Flint’s water isn’t just a health problem. It isn’t just a problem of criminal neglect on the part of Michigan Governor Rick Snyder and other officials who knew for over a year that lead was in Flint’s water. It’s also a democracy problem.
Michigan Governor Rick Snyder created laws that empowered appointed “Emergency Managers” to run indebted municipalities like a dictatorship with no input or recourse from the public or local elected officials. It was Flint’s Emergency Manager that changed Flint’s water supply and began pumping polluted water through corroding lead pipes – to save a few million dollars. And residents are still being billed for the water!
Even General Motors discovered the problems with the water and were allowed to switch back to the old, cleaner water supply while residents continued to be fed lead-poisoned water that causes permanent brain damage.