Cummings & Johnson & the Repertoire of Contention. Signing petitions is a start but not enough
You may have seen and signed the petition calling for the sacking of Dominic Cummings. Over 500,000 people already have including myself.
Yet has Cummings non-apology on 25th May and Johnson’s backing for him have underlined he has no intention of going anywhere.
Johnson has an 80 seat majority and doesn’t need to call an Election until 2024.
So is it game over? Of course not.
The petition is a useful index of popular discontent and anger about Cummings and wont be able to be ignored. It wont get rid of him on its own though.
A link to the petition is here:
chng.it/qnQrqH4H
The late social historian Charles Tilly used a framework of protest known as a repertoire of contention. It may be a little static and mechanistic as a way of grasping how actual protest works but it gives some idea.
The repertoire starts with the petition, through meetings, and strike to active protests and resistance, riots and revolution.
With Cummings we’re at stage one. Socially distanced meetings may not be impossible but there are other ways ahead. One involves verbal protests such as collective booing and groaning:
https://kmflett.wordpress.com/2019/11/01/booing-boris-johnson-its-a-great-british-tradition/
Johnson is pressing ahead with lifting lockdown without making sure adequate safety or tracking or tracing is in place. The first step is to push for a limited opening of schools from June 1st.
The National Education Union have 5 Tests they believe need to be met before this can happen. The more pressure from the wider labour movement and parents to make sure that happens means lifting lockdown not happening on Johnson’s terms and his terms are effectively Cummings terms which is why he is still here. At the moment.
I have emailed my MP about this – although since he is not merely a Tory, but a former Johnson advisor rewarded for his work in that capacity with the candidacy for a safe seat I hold out little hope.