They destroy, we create: join Artists of the Resistance

This letter is published in today's Guardian:

'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
Helen Simpson, writer
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, Museum Association
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

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