 My generation started fighting for civil rights as teenagers (My generation squandered our golden opportunity, 29 December). as young men and women we fought for women's rights, reproductive rights, equal pay, rights for gay people. We stood up against wars in Vietnam and Cambodia and elsewhere; we deplored and stood up against both Soviet tyrannies such as the invasion of Czechoslovakia, and american crimes such as the CIa-supported overthrow of Chile's allende. For decades we boycotted all South african goods until Mandela and his people were freed.  at home we mobilised against nuclear weapons; we challenged their presence around the country. In the 80s we also fought against Thatcher and her brutal cuts; her war on the miners. We were then betrayed by so-called New Labour; we are now betrayed by Clegg. Still we fight on for the survival of the human race in spite of climate change and for a decent society for our children and grandchildren.  We have been up against a huge technological revolution; vicious propaganda; a privately owned rightwing press; unscrupulous politicians. We have lost our pensions, our security in old age; many of us have lost jobs - certainly job security. We fight on. We have seen our children betrayed and we continue to support them and their fight for their own future. We produced, built and expressed the modern world. We did not produce its evils. I am proud of my generation: the first teenagers, we did our best and it looks as though our wonderful, confident pragmatic children will follow us in battle. We are proud of them.  Geoffrey Wheatcroft's article is despicable. How dare he! Let him slink off if he wishes; we are too busy still trying to help, improve things, make things work, learn, as we always have. Stop playing the generations off against each other. anyway, possibly unlike him, the rest of us can't afford to slink off anywhere!  Olivia Byard  Witney, Oxfordshire