A week of strikes against Con-Dem pay cuts climaxed on Saturday in a spirited 100,000-strong show of force by people working harder than ever under poverty wages. 

Nurses, midwives, carers and civil servants marched through central London with thousands more workers days after taking to the picket lines to demand their first real-terms pay rise since the Tories took power.

Speaking at the vast Britain Needs a Pay Rise rally in Hyde Park, TUC general secretary Frances O’Grady praised their determination and said: “This is what solidarity feels like.”

“Our message is that, after the longest and deepest pay squeeze in recorded history, it’s time to end the lockout that has kept the vast majority from sharing in the economic recovery.” 

Union leaders warned millionnaire Tory Chancellor George Osborne their members are ready to break his pay freeze with sustained action right up until the general election. 

But they also told shadow chancellor Ed Balls to brace himself for a rebellion from working people if Labour wins in May unless the party offers an alternative to austerity. 

PCS Civil Service union leader Mark Serwotka said: “We have to be clear that George Osborne’s pay freeze is unacceptable.

“But if Ed Balls wants a pay freeze, that is absolutely as unacceptable — and we should tell our Labour politicians that we will not accept it.”

Unite general secretary Len McCluskey called on Labour to be inspired by the massive rally and offer a “clear socialist alternative” at the general election. 

“I say to Labour — stop being scared of your own shadow. Don’t shrink what you offer the British people. The time for being timid is past.”

Over 100,000 people from across England and Wales filled the streets as they marched through London behind bright union banners to the sound of brass and samba bands. 

A sea of people stretched across Hyde Park at the TUC rally, which included lively sets by Musicians Union members and Equity stand-up star Andy Parsons.

And they raised a huge cheer when Mr Serwotka ended his rousing speech with a call for unions to “strike together.”

“If we don’t do that, we’ll be back in this park in a year’s time, still knowing we’re right, still knowing that it’s unjust, but still on the receiving end of unacceptable cuts,” he told the crowds. 

Unison general secretary Dave Prentis praised NHS workers who took strike action this week after being offered nothing for their life-saving work by Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt. 

A planned strike by Unison local government workers was suspended to consult on a new pay offer.

But Mr Prentis said: “The pay offer is not good. It’s not good, and if our members vote against that pay offer we will take sustained industrial action.”

Mr Prentis added that a possible strike by civilian police staff “will hit the Tories more than anything.” 

Hyde Park also heard from 91-year-old Harry Smith, who recalled how he visited the picket lines of the 1926 General Strike on the shoulders of his coalminer dad.

And he said: “I stand before you as an old man to say that we can return our country to its rightful owners — the people.”