The new "Age of Austerity" that Cameron promised before the election has arrived. George Osborne's emergency budget announced a public sector pay freeze that could see millions of workers seeing a real pay cut, after inflation, of around 10% over two years. Those earning less than £21,000 will get an extra £250 a year - i.e. also a pay cut.

Cameron admitted as much but he soon resorted to the familiar Tory lies by saying, "We either have to have pay restraint or we are going to lose jobs." But the truth is we are being hit by both. The 25% cut in all-non-ringfenced departments will mean 600,000 job losses - and the destruction of services for working class people,

Still not satisfied, the Chancellor's next target is pensions, accelerating the move towards a state pension age of 66 for men by 2016. The basic state pension is now linked to earnings - convenient when a huge public pay freeze has been declared!

Osborne says, if prices are higher, then pensions will be linked to them - but he is using the generally lower CPI rate of inflation, which does not include housing costs or council tax. At present the CPI is at 3.4%, whereas the more accurate RPI index is running at 5.1%.

John Hutton, former Labour minister and turncoat, will "review" public sector pensions for the Tories and earmark savings and major reforms in time for next year's budget. Expect greater contributions from our wages and a later date for accessing payments at the very least.

Other measures that will drive down our living standards:
* Raising VAT three points to 20%, a flat rate tax that hits the poorest hardest, taking 11% of their income
* Cutting welfare payments, including Housing Benefit and Job Seekers' Allowance for the long term unemployed - at a time when the dole queue is 2.5 million long and growing.

Class war budget
At the same time, Osborne has cut corporation tax by 1% for each of the next four years, limited the rise in capital gains tax to just 28% for the super-rich and promised more cuts of $61 billion in the next five years.

Unison general secretary Dave Prentis accused the government of declaring war on public services and workers. But the question now is over action - and whether the trade union leaders will put the movement on a war footing to smash the budget.

Bob Crow said, "The RMT is calling on the trade union movement to start the fightback right here, right now, before Cameron and Clegg have a chance to put their boots on. This is not the time for talking; it's the time for action. We need an emergency meeting of the TUC to coordinate the political and industrial action that we will need to take as a united movement to drive back the Con-Dem attack on our members."

But we know the TUC will not act unless forced, so today's conference has to act as a forcing house. Delegates should demand the right to debate and amend a series of actions to unite our struggles and make the bosses pay for their crisis.

[i]Unite Labour, unions and youth
The trade unions must lead the working class in mounting resistance, with branches, regions, national executives and trades councils coming together to establish anti-cuts coalitions and stop the Tory-Lib Dem budget.

These cuts are a broadside against the working class, hitting everyone from public service workers to the poorest in every town and city. We can mobilise millions of working people and poor on the scale of the Great Poll Tax Rebellion 20 years ago, which pushed out Thatcher.

* The TUC and Labour should call a one-day general strike against the budget
* The public sector unions should ballot now for national indefinite strike action to bust the pay freeze and the cuts
* Benefits claimants, tenants and service users should form Anti-Cuts Committees in every town, linking up with delegates from the unions and constituency Labour parties
* Occupy offices and depots marked for closure
* Take action with the official Labour and union leaders where possible and without them where necessary
* Defy the anti-union laws, if the judges and bosses try to ban our action
* Let's convene a huge national conference of the whole working class movement to plan an emergency programme of action to smash the cuts and bring down this robbers' government!