In his obituary for Bob Crow (12 March), Christian Wolmar states that Bob "was not a member of a political party when he died". However, Bob sat with me on the national steering committee of the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC), which stands in general and local elections, from its foundation in 2010. Indeed, it was only a few days ago that we were discussing what public meetings he could do to support TUSC's 2014 local elections campaign, in what will be the biggest left-of-Labour challenge in such elections since the second world war.

Bob was also the national leader of No2EU – Yes To Workers' Rights, a political party registered to fight the 2014 European elections. He was going to be the lead candidate for London. Bob couldn't have been clearer on the need for working-class people to have an independent political voice, which none of the establishment parties can provide.

Clive Heemskerk

Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition national election agent

• As the obituary of Bob Crow says, he was "very keen on defending the rights of low-paid workers" – in fact he also stood up for the unwaged. It has been hard to convince union leaders that welfare and wages are inseparable. Bob Crow had no such problem. He signed our petition calling for a living wage for mothers and other carers (see goo.gl/TWPkPo).

He agreed that without a social wage protecting us from destitution if we turn down slave wages, all workers are threatened. In the same way, women's wages determine men's: as workfare, the benefit cap and zero-hours contracts drove down our incomes, men's wages were pulled down too. Ignoring the connection between the wages of those who work outside the home and the social wage has enabled today's crisis – not of capitalism, which is doing fine, but of workers whose impoverishment is a bonanza for the 1%.

Bob Crow will be missed by many, waged and unwaged.

Selma James and Nina Lopez

Global Women's Strike

• Both Decca Aitkenhead (Shortcuts, G2, 12 April) and Christian Wolmar question the late Bob Crow for living in a council house when he earned £145,000 a year, she questioning his "socialist ethics" and he describing his decision as a "blind spot". Yet Crow was surely right in saying that social housing was for everyone: in other words, social housing ought to be a universal provision, conforming to socialist ideas, rather than the residual welfare provision to which it has been reduced, with baleful consequences for society.

Professor Stuart Weir

Cambridge

• Bob Crow was hated by the transport bosses and their media lickspittles, but he was loved by his members and his class. Where other trade union leaders talked a good fight but sold out the struggle more often than not, he delivered for his members. He never sold out. The best tribute the RMT can pay him is to smash Transport for London's plans to close all ticket offices on the tube and cut 900 jobs.

Sasha Simic

(Usdaw shop steward), London

• Most people believe you should make money by working for a living; and some recognise that wage increases, when backed by increased productivity, are healthier for the economy than house price increases, which are essentially inflationary. But our society dictates the opposite: we want high wages and low property prices; we get low wages and high property prices. What Bob Crow did, both in paying rent for his public-sector housing and in securing high wages for his workers, was ultimately for the public good. Shame on the snobbish British ruling class, its media and supporters for adopting, instead of Crow's constructive outlook, the nihilist mantra "Market forces rule: human resistance is futile." Bob Crow showed it wasn't.

DBC Reed

Northampton

• The death of Bob Crow has sparked a remarkable range of comment, most from unlikely sources. His message was quite simply that if you want a high-quality service delivered consistently by a well-motivated work force you need to respect them with reasonable pay and conditions. Bob clearly understood capitalism and made it work for his members. Both government and employers need to listen to Bob Crow's message.

John Holmes

London