• SCRUPULOUSLY thorough critique by George Binette of our book Come Together: Trades Councils 1920-50, (A labour of love across two generations, Review, May 2).

We were lauding 20-year-old Franz Kafka: “A book must be the axe for the frozen sea within us.” (January 27 1904).

We were/are celebrating the less empowered, the marginalised voices in British history.

The clues were in the text: “The fire of activism can heighten consciousness…” And: “The disruptionists of yesteryear sometime become the pillars of conformity.” (See a young militant Tufnell Park Starmer), “The walls of vested interest, class domination and social injustices will not fall to the sound of resolutions.”; “the same arguments from the 1920s to 50s are utilised today about protesters/ strikers”; “divide-and-rule tactics have to be resisted by united action”; “all legislation is class legislation.”; “the colossal ineptitude of our ruling class”, etc.

If one wants to understand history’s resonances today, see Oppenheimer (how to “other” a world-renowned scientist by stigmatising him as a “Commie”), and Michael Sheen in Nye at the National Theatre (about Bevan and his confrontations to establish the National Health Service).

Venceremos!

MIKE & JETHRO BOR, W2