Osborne's announcements at the Tory party conference were designed to shock and to please - to shock the working class majority which is the main target of these cuts and to please the Tories' business backers who have been crying for yet more public expenditure cuts.

The two main announcements - the capping of total household benefits and a wholesale attack on public sector pensions - are justified by the crassest demagogy. Claimants are exposed as "scroungers" or "cheats" while public sector pensions are described as "gold-plated".

Never mind the fact that there would be no need for in-work or out-of-work benefits if it were not for the soaring number of part-time jobs, the low wages paid by the bosses and their on-going shedding of jobs. Never mind either that, according to the government's own figures, a majority of public sector pensioners earn less than £110/w - not much "gold" there!

Unaffordable profiteering

So, the poorest and working class majority will be hardest hit by Osborne's plans. This, despite his demagogic gesture of withdrawing child benefit from higher rate taxpayers: the really well-off, who should never have earned any benefit, won't even notice; whereas some of the families close to the cut off point, will feel harder up!

But, of course, there is no question of "capping" private profits - the planned reduction in corporation tax will "uncap" them even more! Nor is there any question of denting the luxurious "pension nests" that company directors set for themselves!

Meanwhile big shareholders and bankers go on enjoying fat dividends, profits and bonuses from speculation, all paid for by the hundreds of billions in public funds handed over to them by Labour! Never mind that this may threaten the economy with yet more chaos, while depriving production of job-creating investment!

Politicians of all persuasions are lining up to tell us that the working class "has to make sacrifices" in order to reduce the budget deficit created by the bank bailout and to rebuild an economy, which has been devastated by the capitalists' mad profiteering.

But look at Ireland. Twice over the past two years, Irish workers have had to tighten their belts under the very same pretext. Only to be told, at the end of September, that more public money had to be poured into the banking system and that another round of cuts would be implemented.

We can already see a similar situation looming over here. Experts and officials are now talking about the need for more "quantitative easing" for the banks, meaning more public money poured into their coffers, to the tune of £50bn at least. Will this amount be added as well, to the deficit we are supposed to pay for? This is a vicious circle!

Responding in kind

This black hole of capitalist profiteering is just unaffordable for the working class.

Some years ago, in an interview with a New York Times journalist, the US billionaire Warren Buffet explained: "There's class warfare, all right, but it's my class, the rich class, that's making war, and we're winning." With all due cynicism, Buffett was already putting in a nutshell the reality of the situation that we face today.

Yes, the capitalists and their politicians in the main parties are all engaged in a class war against the working class. And so far, they are winning it - not because they are stronger, but, quite simply, because, so far, the working class hasn't been using its collective capacity to resist their attacks.

Preparing and organising this collective resistance, should be the role of the unions. However we saw, at the TUC conference, how reluctant union leaders are to commit themselves to any sort of fight back. They'd rather negotiate with ministers. Except that negotiating from a position of weakness is a recipe for defeat.

The TUC's "strategy" of postponing any real action until the cuts start biting is also a non-starter. It is now, while the cuts are still only a threat but not yet a fact, that the working class needs to throw all its forces - from the public and private sectors - into opposing the class war waged by the bosses and their government.

On 23rd October, several unions are organising marches and rallies in various cities, including London. Workers' Fight calls on its readers to seize these opportunities to voice their opposition to the present attacks, and demonstrate their conviction that the only response is a united counter-offensive involving all sections of the working class.