A thread about the power of protest, the meaning of 3.5%, and why the corrupt Cummings/Johnson cabal must be removed from No 10… #3Point5Percent #resist #ToriesOut

Three weeks ago, I posted this humble proposal for a peaceful revolution to remove the crooked squatters in Downing Street… Our systems of accountability are largely failing, so we need to take action ourselves, inspired by the 3.5% rule… #resist #3Point5Percent https://twitter.com/paddydocherty/status/1289486796489805824

Since then, a wide variety of reply guys & Tory apologists (as well as a handful of despair trolls) have popped up in my mentions with some typically unoriginal arguments for why the beshitted Johnson is untouchable. #3Point5Percent #JohnsonMustGo

A common response is “protest doesn’t work, look at the Brexit marches”… This misses the essential requirement for *sustained* protest. Occasional Saturday marches, with witty signs and the children in tow, will not work. #3Point5Percent #ToriesOut #Brexit

Sometimes the above objection is rendered as “they’ll just ignore us”, forgetting the salient point that sustained non-violent protest has *never* failed once the 3.5% population threshold is reached. #3Point5Percent #resist #ToriesOut

On occasion this ‘argument’ takes the form of English exceptionalism – “it could never happen here”… It’s true that England does have a particular problem with class deference… #3Point5Percent #JohnsonMustGo https://twitter.com/paddydocherty/status/1153326167711203328

…which I think largely explains how we’ve been lumbered with the most disgustingly unfit “prime minister” in our history. #ToriesOut #3Point5Percent #JohnsonMustGo

There is nothing special about the evil incompetents in Downing Street, however: they are just as vulnerable as any other squalid regime. Moreover, England may not have quite the revolutionary tradition of other countries, but no less an authority than Engels saw potential…

Another common response is that it would be undemocratic… “We had an election”… Did we really?! The Tory party is fatally compromised by Russian money, and lied its way back to power after supressing the damning #RussiaReport. That’s not democracy. https://www.itv.com/news/2019-12-06/88-of-conservative-ads-on-facebook-misleading

If anyone seriously doubts the alarming realities behind the Russian attack on democracy in the US and UK, please see this terrifying thread from national hero @carolecadwalla #ffs #3Point5Percent #RussiaReport https://twitter.com/carolecadwalla/status/1296851533670350849

Moreover, even if the 2019 general election was free, fair and entirely legitimate (it wasn’t), that would not make wholesale #ToryCorruption any more acceptable… #3Point5Percent #resist #ToriesOut https://twitter.com/jolyonmaugham/status/1296321063832498179

A related complaint is that “the 3.5%” are a tiny minority trying to impose something extreme on the rest of the country. This is a misunderstanding… The 3.5% campaigns for *the whole country* against a tiny group of kleptofascists… #resist #3Point5Percent #ToriesOut

Frequently, negative responders to the 3.5% concept simply rubbish it without any understanding, because it sounds implausible… but I’ll believe the woman with a PhD and several books on the subject, rather than the twitter reply guy… Come with facts or don’t bother.

Some attempt a more informed assault, linking to reviews that critique Chenoweth’s work. The mistake they make, however, is to leap from finding one or two points of contention to rejecting the entire corpus, which is simply childish… She’s obviously open to discussion…

The despair trolls sometimes try the line that “it only works against dictators”… They need to remind themselves of the authoritarian tendencies of our current “government”, but moreover, Chenoweth is clear on the efficacy of protest against regimes of all kinds

Finally, some responders say that “peaceful protest isn’t going to cut it”… I don’t know if these people are simply despairing or are chaos agents looking to create trouble, but they’re completely wrong. Prof Chenoweth’s work clearly shows the power of non-violent action…

Crucially, I have said that removing the crooked Cummings/Johnson cabal by peaceful protest is *possible* not *easy*… Bringing down corrupt and powerful people is seriously challenging. #resist #resilience #ToriesOut

Moreover, Chenoweth is of course very alive to the dangers inherent in opposing a corrupt regime. They have the means of repression. Will they use them? #3Point5Percent

Now that we’ve seen various police elements use exceptional violence against protesters in the US, what are our expectations about the reaction of police units around the UK? How violent would they get to defend the beshitted Johnson and his Tory crooks? @metpoliceuk

This brings us to a point that Chenoweth makes in her @TEDx talk: a broad coalition of peaceful protestors makes it more likely that the mechanisms of repression will fail. When family members may be in the crowd, police will hesitate to use force…

The strength of the 3.5% idea lies therefore in the potential to mobilise a large and highly varied body of protesters against #ToryCorruption. It is not an *organisation*, nor even a movement except in the broadest, most inclusive sense… #resist #3Point5Percent

The emerging, loose coalition of 3.5%ers are united only by the desire to expel the crooked Cummings/Johnson cabal from No 10 and to restore the proper functioning of democracy. Beyond that, many will have different ideas… #3Point5Percent #ToryCorruption #JohnsonMustGo

For the record, my preferred way forward is, once Cummings/Johnson have gone, for a Government of National Unity followed by a general election under PR. Once we have that done, then we can start deciding on the necessary structural changes for the future… #ToriesOut

That simple focus on getting the crooks out of Downing Street is what draws in a broad coalition: if you are speaking up against this #ToryCorruption you’re *already* a part of the 3.5%... United, we are more powerful than we realise. #resist #ToriesOut #JohnsonMustGo