How to fight back against austerity cuts

As Len McCluskey noted, the Conservative attack on the welfare state and public services is driven by ideology ( Unions, get set for battle , 20 December). They would, if they could, cut services back to the bone and then outsource everything to private sector vultures. It's also personal. This millionaire cabinet wasn't educated at the state schools that 93% of pupils attend, but at elite fee-paying private schools. Social housing? Not likely. And the NHS queues are bypassed courtesy of Bupa. With the Conservatives, we welcome back the old ruling class, re-packaged and re-imaged, but still remote and removed from the reality of ordinary people's lives. Len McCluskey is right, we have to stop them completing the job that Thatcherism started – the shattering of the welfare state and selling the remnants off to the lowest bidder. Richard Knights Liverpool • The admonitory tone of your editorial response (20 December) to Len McCluskey's piece said a lot about the Guardian's politics. I saw no direct evidence that McCluskey had "stopped thinking in 1979". A call for a round of strike action sparked on your part what sounded like an irrational fear of trade unions and "old" Labour. There might indeed be aspects of that tradition to jettison, but there are some definitely worth preserving, especially when considered alongside the poverty of the present government's strategy. I suspect McCluskey's thinking reaches out to more people than does yours. Professor Jeff Hill Bishop's Castle, Shropshire • At last, proper polarisation. For all the positives in education and social services achieved from 1997, Labour isn't going to successfully oppose the patent intent of this government to dismantle the welfare state. Unions are the only bodies remaining able to mobilise vociferous protest and point out the stark contrast between those who stand to suffer and the bankers and their pals who will not give up their privileges. David Feintuck Lewes, East Sussex • Your editorial criticising Len McCluskey omits a basic but critical point. If the unions do nothing in response to the age of austerity, equally well this could lead them to be in a "more unnecessarily marginal position than they already occupy today". The danger you should have articulated is not the difference between doing something and doing nothing, but rather finding the appropriate and effective means by which to create and mobilise civic alliances. Thus, on the issue of working with the renewed student movement, a salient question must surely be whether the student protests have peaked. Until these types of questions are answered, forming alliances with students or any other groups in civic society as well as mobilising them thereafter are not much more than pipe dreams. Professor Gregor Gall Work and employment research unit, University of Hertfordshire • The CBI is warning of higher inflation and unemployment and falling living standards, but when Len McCluskey suggests the unions join the students in fighting back, your leader condemns him. What should we do – passively grumble? You say McCluskey should reach out to the majority who aren't in unions and look for "innovative" ways of addressing their anxieties. I'm one of the millions of non-union carers taken for granted by the government, and it's because we are isolated that we need the unions to act on our behalf. Who else will? Brent Kennedy Carlisle • Len McCluskey calls for a "broad strike movement" to stop the coalition's "explicitly ideological" programme of cuts. Government cuts are decimating education, welfare, health, sports and the arts. We are told that they are inevitable; that the only choice we have is between music classes for our kids or care for our elderly. We do not accept that jobs, services and the quality of life have to be jettisoned for the greed of those who are asked to sacrifice nothing. Everything that is not immediately of use to the corporate agenda is to be placed on a pay-as-you-go principle. Meanwhile funding for theatre, film, music and other arts projects is to return to the Victorian notion of finding patrons, drawn from the people who have their own agendas. In the face of those who exercise their power to destroy, we need to create. We urge all those who work in the arts to join us at "Artists of the Resistance" in opposing the cuts. Iain Banks Writer , Peter Kennard Visual artist , AL Kennedy Writer , Miriam Margolyes Actor , Michael Rosen Author and poet , Martin Rowson Cartoonist , Janet Suzman Actor , Timberlake Wertenbaker Playwright Andy de la Tour, actor Alan Gibbons, children's author Susie Meszaros, musician Cat Picton Phillipps, visual artist Leon Rosselson, singer, songwriter & author Sue Ahmet, actor Shaun Askew, animator Shabina Aslam, theatre director Anne Aylor, writer & ballet teacher Vanessa Badham, writer Jordan Baseman, video artist Elizabeth Beech, artistic director,The Phoenix Project William Bell Maria Birmingham, animator Annie Bishop Cecily Bomberg, writer Sean Bonney, poet Phil Branston Stephen Carley, AV artist Florence Curtis Tony Dowling, TUC Zack Dowson Chris Easton, North East Unison Karl Benjamin Frankson, artist Jill Gibbon, artist Yaron Golan, music producer Marilyn Halpin Joseph Healy, disability worker Simone Hodgson Matt Houlihan, actor Camilla Howalt, artist Diane Jones Angela Jane Kennedy, artist Fin Kennedy, playwright Rachel Kirk Ol'ga Kretz, film-maker Lucy Lepchani, writer & poet Michael Lowe, artist Fiona MacDonald, opera singer Mel McCree, writer & artist Carol Meredith Sue Mitchell Carol Mottershead, dancer Hugh Nicholson Conor O'Kane, artist and dancer Jane Park Lynne Parker, Funny Women Romayne Phoenix, visual artist Ben Ponton, amino artist and arts producer Konstantina Ritsou-Zavolia, author & director Derek Robertson Dee Shaw Patricia Shrigley, video artist Patrick Simons, artist Patrick Snape Georgie Stagg Rebecca Thorn, musician Geoff Tibbs Tabitha Troughton, writer Charlotte Turton, artist Elizia Volkmann, writer and artist Michael Walling, artistic director, Border Crossings Joanne Walker, CoR Tyne & Wear Debra Watson David Wilson, publisher Jan Woolf, writer Tom Wood • The letter above was amended on 21 December 2010. The original featured a signatory whose name was not meant to be included, and mistakenly listed another signatory together with the name of their employer when they had in fact signed the letter in a personal capacity. These errors have been corrected.