We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Savannah Dsa. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Savannah below.

Alright, Savannah thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Let’s start with the story of your mission. What should we know?

Savannah DSA is a group of ordinary working class people uniting to have a real voice in our workplaces, neighborhoods, and society. All of our members have experienced how difficult it is to thrive under capitalism, which is ultimately what encourages new members to join the work we’re doing to build and support our community in more just and fair ways.

As a chapter, and national organization, we are all working towards a democracy that creates space for everyone to flourish – not just survive – and which answers the fundamental questions of our lives with the input of all. We want to collectively own the key economic drivers that dominate our lives, such as energy production and transportation. We want the multiracial working class united in solidarity instead of divided by fear. We want to win “radical” reform like single-payer Medicare for All, defund the police/refund communities, the Green New Deal, and more as a transition to a freer, more just life.

The work we do is meaningful to every single one of our members because we are all directly affected by the serious repercussions of living in a capitalist society. The bonus to our work is that while helping ourselves, we also help improve the daily lives of Savannahians – highlighting the benefits of democratic socialism for everyone.

We want a democracy powered by everyday people. The capitalist class tells us we are powerless, but together we can take back control.

Savannah, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

Savannah DSA is a group of working class organizers and activists building community to improve the lives of all Savannahians. We’re currently focused on work in the following areas: Mutual Aid, Housing, Electoral, Labor, and International – including work that we’re doing to stop the genocide in Palestine.

Whereas democratic socialism has been growing in the US since its origins in the 1970s, our chapter was started in 2020 and has been growing ever since. The work we do is driven by our members, whose voice is the final say in the decisions we make. So, if there’s work someone wants to see done in the community, and there are other people interested in supporting that work, that’s what we’ll do.

Our chapter is open to new members who consider themselves working class, or anyone simply struggling to make ends meet right now. We’re always looking for new members who want to play an active role in improving the daily lives of the majority in our community.

We’re extremely proud of our Mutual Aid work that has been going strong for several years now. We serve anywhere from 15 to 35+ people every Saturday with hot food, water, clothing, diapers, and hygiene items. Once a month, we also host a medical group that provide basic medical services to anyone who is not insured or under insured.

We’re grateful to see an uptick in members joining our chapter since the 2024 general election. There’s a lot of work still to do and we need all hands on deck to do it.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

It was a typical hot and humid Saturday afternoon in Savannah. Our members were set up at our usual Mutual Aid location serving the community with water and clothing donations we’d recently received. The water was going fast as everyone tried their best to stay cool.

A community member approached, asking if we had any clothing hangers. We didn’t.

We hate to leave a community member in need, but sometimes just don’t have the material needs they require.

Thankfully, mutual aid came into immediate action when another community member came cycling by on their bike asking if we’d accept a donation of clothing hangers. These two community members were already friends who had no idea that one needed the very items that the other no longer wanted.

This was a perfect illustration of the work we aim to do – empowering the community to support one another. These friends left happy that they’d gained/off loaded what they needed while connecting with each other that day. We had another successful sharing.

Can you open up about how you funded your business?

The DSA is a member-funded non-profit organization. This allows us to not only buy into the work we do, but also have a democratic say in how our dues are spent.

Our founding members simply needed to be dues paying members of the national DSA to start a local chapter, which makes the work we do very accessible for anyone in the country looking to start a chapter where they live.

To be a full member of DSA national and/or local chapter, members can donate monthly, or yearly, at the amount they can afford. In turn, their vote counts when we make decisions. We do ask that members who have the means give 1% income-based dues to support our chapter as we scale the work we are doing in the community. But a lack of funds shouldn’t deter anyone from joining. In fact, for people who do not have the means, but who wish to be full members, National DSA does offer a 1-year waiver to ensure that no one is left out of participating as a full voting member.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.savgadsa.org/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dsasavannah/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SavannahDSA/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/savannahdsa