John Mac, somebody did indeed mention Cuba (Ake did) and it was in the context of a recent interview in which Castro conceded that the Cuban model was indeed in need of revision. That model nevertheless, and for all its faults, delivred extraordinary levels of healthcare and education for all in the face of punitive economic hardships imposed by successive US admins that prefer the Battista style of autocrisy.

Your claim that "strikes are self-defeating" is a generalisation that reeks of blind stupidity, or doctrinaire right-wing claptrap. You may be apolitical but you are plainly prejudiced a well.

You say you are familiar with the coalmining industry, so you may remember a strike by the National Union of Mineworkers in 1972. As a result of that strike an inquiry was set up - the Wilberforce inquiry - to examine the remuneration of mineworkers. That inquiry produced a report which was adopted and implemented in full - as a result of which mmineworkers were promoted from 16th to second place in the league table of manual workers. Not a single TUC-affiliated union sought to re-establish the previous differentials. Sorry john, but without a strike the mineworkers would have moved only from 16th to 15th position - where the NCB's last pre-strike offer would have taken them.

Do you think that every other improvement in working conditions and remuneration for employees since the 19th century resulted simply from the benevolence of employers?

Howard Jones: I worked a few years on newspapers, then 20 years in the public sector, then back to the private sector for 15 more years. I found that on the whole people worked hard in both arenas. Thre are always those (me included) who push the boundaries from time to time, but not more so inone sector than the other. I suspect your generalisation is founded on ignorance or perhaps an over-gullible dependence on our wonderful newspapers.