"It is our duty to fight for our freedom. It is our duty to win. We must love each other and support each other. We have nothing to lose but our chains."

— Assata Shakur

The COVID-19 global public health crisis has made the stakes clearer than ever – and in the face of government in action, we need to stand up for ourselves and protect each other. The most important thing we can all do right now is get organized. As we settle into the new "normal", let's renew our commitment to ourselves and to each other. Let's help each other find a place in the movement and in the world around us. 

Metro Atlanta DSA is partnering with groups across the city to help build a robust mutual aid network. We're mobilizing our members to provide support for folks across the city who are struggling to pay for essential needs and access critical resources.

Join Our COVID-19 Response Team!

In addition to supporting other groups doing critical mutual aid work, Metro Atlanta DSA is also organizing our chapter on a neighborhood-level as "blocks" so that new members can have a contact in their neighborhood and a list of local concerns to join the fight for.

Ready to get involved with COVID-19 response work or sign up to be a Block Captain? Email [email protected] or join the #covid-19 channel on our members-only Slack.

(If you're a DSA member but not on Slack yet, please email [email protected] to be added!)

VOLUNTEER!
Food 4 Life Grocery Packing

Sunday, April 19, 12:00-3:00pm 

Meet at The Teardown

80 Mayson Ave, Atlanta, GA 30307

As part of our COVID-19 response, Metro Atlanta DSA members will be volunteering with the Atlanta Survival Program to help pack groceries for volunteer distribution around Atlanta.

A quick sanitation training and PPE will be provided, but please bring your own face mask if you can.

Support Our COVID-19 Organizing Work with Local Dues

If you are able, please consider paying monthly local dues on top of your national DSA dues to support our local mutual aid & organizing work.

Setting up recurring monthly local dues — even just $10 or $15 per month from a handful of folks — can go a long way toward meeting our goals! Can you chip in?

Your dues give us the tools to get started, the money to make flyers and make new contacts, the software (not super expensive!) to organize those blocks without hours of physical labor, the ability to run multiple meeting rooms even if they're overlapping.

Help The Homeless In Atlanta

So listen. If you've been watching the news, you know that the city has been in a crisis for a WHILE with helping the houseless in South Atlanta, and this crisis is only getting worse as the coronavirus spreads... how can people shelter in place without a place? We're looking to pass out hygiene kits for our homeless Atlantans. Marshall Rancifer is a longtime advocate on these issues and has shared this list of items being accepted:

- Hand sanitizer

- Kleenex

- Toothbrushes

- Travel sized toothpaste/mouthwash/soaps 

- Clean socks 

- Menstrual products 

And anything else hygiene related that is easily accessible for folks on the streets

If you have access to these resources or money to buy them, please reach out to Marshall at: [email protected]

And you can donate funds immediately to:

http://paypal.me/MarshallRancifer

Cashapp is $Justice4Homeless

On a similar note, if you can cook - we're looking for people wiling to cook large meals now and in the coming weeks. Reply to this email and we'll be up and running.

More Upcoming Events

We need to empty the prisons in Fulton County. Again, if you've been watching the news, you understand the incarcerated are among the most vulnerable to the epidemic - they're packed inside the prisons and they can't GO anywhere. 

We've got a plan for that. We're immediately working on a campaign to #LETMYPEOPLEGO - call the Fulton County DA and help him understand how critical this is. The flyer above will give you the details - we're calling starting RIGHT NOW when you read this and through the week.