What happened?

There was never a national march planned by our 50501 DC organizers for March 4th. The flyer that circulated announcing it was created by an individual who was not associated with the DC organizers and had not contacted them before putting the flyer out.

The DC organizers had a different type of protest planned for March 4th, with a march being scheduled for a later date. They discussed the logistics of moving up the plans for the march to March 4^(th) after the poster circulated, but they didn’t feel they could gather the funding and resources needed to safely host a national protest in the short period of time they had to come up with it.

The concerns about safety and security were further amplified by the Elon tweets that were released. This is what led them to pivot to hosting a virtual State of the Union event on March 4th rather than hosting an in-person event. 
 
What are the obstacles to planning it?

Planning a national event requires a lot of funding and a lot of resources, including safety marshals, medics, legal observers, water stations, waste management, sound equipment, stages, speakers, etc.

50501 is not an organization. We are just a coalition of thousands of individuals who came together to do this because we liked the idea and believed in the cause.

Because we’re not an organization, there is no way for us to legally gather and disseminate funds to states on a national level. That means there is NO funding here. The state organizers rely on local nonprofits, sponsors, and other established activist organizations to help fund protests and share resources.

DC organizers would have had less than 2 weeks to pull all of those things together. Even after successfully planning the 2/5 and 2/17 events, there just wasn’t enough time to pull together the resources to plan a national event safely.

Will there be another DC in-person event in the future?

YES! Of course! Stay tuned! DC organizers will be announcing their next in-person event very soon!

In the meantime, 50501 DC organizers support and encourage you to attend the many other protests happening in DC. There are MANY! Check their https://linktr.ee/50501DC to stay up to date on updates.

What can I do on March 4th instead?

• Attend the 50501 protest that’s being organized locally in your state!
• Join DC organizers for their We the People’s State of the Union virtual event
• Call and email your representatives (using 5calls.org)
• Volunteer with organizations that help those most affected by Trump’s recent executive orders
• Donate to a charity that matches our cause
• Host or attend a non-protest event in your area to get to know the people in your community

… Among many other things!