Now that the election campaign has officially begun, both main parties are frantically overbidding each other in search of votes.

Predictably, they both started off by spelling out their "manifesto for business" in which they reiterated their unbinding commitment to promoting capitalist interests - and profits - something that no-one doubted, anyway.

But "business" only makes up a tiny minority of the electorate. So the politicians have to provide the working class majority with at least one or two reasons to vote for them. And this is how the issue of zero-hours contracts finally made it to the news headlines.

What are Labour's pledges worth?

First, came Osborne's budget speech in which he boasted, in passing, that zero-hours contracts were "now regulated". Of course, this was an outright lie - among many others on that day!

Nevertheless, it took no less than two weeks for Miliband to counter-attack by pledging that a Labour government would "ban zero-hour contracts for employees who are in practice working regular hours. This absolute new legal right to a regular contract will apply to workers after just 12 weeks."

So far so good - at least rhetorically. But why this 12-week waiting period for the benefit of scrooge bosses? Isn't that encouraging them to hire workers on zero-hours contracts, only to sack them as soon as the 12-week period is over, under the pretext that they've failed their probationary period?

But there's the small print. Miliband stressed that this would only apply to workers already de facto working regular hours. And what if bosses unofficially give workers the "choice" between losing their job or "volunteering" to remain on zero-hours?

Besides, who will enforce this ban? A Labour government? But, lest one forget, during the 11 years of Labour governments after the introduction of the minimum wage, only 7 companies were prosecuted for breaking the law in this respect. Yet, in 2014, over 350,000 workers were paid under the minimum wage, according to the TUC!

Not only can Labour not be trusted to have the political will to ruffle the bosses' feathers by effectively policing a ban on zero-hours contracts, but Miliband did not even undertake to repeal the punitive costs imposed on workers who try to defend their rights by filing a case with an Employment Tribunal!

To all intents and purposes, this pledge is just another case of generating illusions among workers - much like Miliband's promise that Labour will raise the minimum wage to a miserly £8.00/hr by... 2020!

What voting can't do, fighting will!

Nevertheless, the bosses have been quick to respond to Miliband's suggestions with all due outrage. So, for instance, John Cridland, director-general of the bosses' organisation, the CBI, responded by declaring that "these proposals run the risk of a return to day-to-day hiring in parts of the economy, with lower stability for workers and fewer opportunities for people to break out of low pay."

Where is the "stability" and what are the "opportunities to break out of low pay" offered to the 1.8m or so workers on zero-hours contracts today? Or the many on no contract at all, already hired on a daily basis? It takes the arrogant cynicism of a CBI mouthpiece to issue such a statement!

Just as it takes the arrogant self-satisfaction of well-fed fat cats to take up a full page of the daily Telegraph, as 103 of them did last week, in order to congratulate the Tories. They complimented Osborne on cutting corporation tax to 20%! Among these was Tidjane Thiam, ex-CEO of insurance giant Prudential, who just left to head a Swiss bank, taking a "golden goodbye" worth £11.8 million!

Because, while all these bosses, together with the politicians of both main parties keep telling us about the need to reduce the deficit and to make savings on public expenditure, they themselves don't know what the word "austerity" means.

So, in March, the City share index passed the 7,000 mark for the first time ever. Profits are up and so are boardroom bonuses. Martin Sorrell, the head of the WPP group, for instance, made £40m last year, while 16 other members of the boards shared a £310m bounty. And yet, in what way is WPP useful to society? None whatsoever - it just produces hot (advertising) air!

The point is, that the bosses have now got used to enjoying the benefits of the crisis - i.e., turning the screw on us, workers. And what we need is to break free from under their screw. Neither the politicians nor their elections will do that for us. Only using our collective strength in the fights to come, will!