Workers Solidarity Movement

This is the story of a dog, a dog from the streets that lives in one of the European PIGS. [The basket case economies of Europe have been grouped together neatly into this porcine gang – Portugal, Ireland, Greece, and Spain.]  Our dog, the stray dog lives in Athens and for the last two years or more he has been appearing at every single protest that has been fought there.  As the World slipped into the tail spin spiral of a global recession, one dog was putting in the hours, pounding the pavements in protests, knowing which side he was on in the battles being fought.

Kanellos (Cinnamon in English) the wonder dog has a facebook page  under the far more accurate moniker of Riot Dog.

He has been featured in two newspaper articles in both The Guardian and The Vancouver Sun.

The possible highlight of this dog’s life would have to be becoming the cover dog on the Economist.  This issue hit the streets and the Economist warned of riots coming to a city near you.  It also happened to be the weekend where the European Finance ministers and the IMF agreed a $1 trillion package in loan guarantees and stabilisation funds to help keep economies from falling into the shit with the other PIGS. 

Kanellos, as a dog in the street will tell you that it does not matter who is in charge – the austerity is coming.  When the IMF agree to help out, you can be guaranteed there will be more cuts in public spending, in public services, in the public wage bill, and in pensions.  The Governments say they are doing one thing, like protecting the vulnerable, whilst doing the exact opposite.  The markets are in charge, and yet the capitalist markets are what got us into this mess.   So with the promise of $1 trillion the speculators come in and are quiet content to gamble on the future of the Euro.

Kanellos, when I spoke to him said this.

“Woof! Who gives a fiddler’s fart for the future of the Euro.  What I care about is where the next bone is coming from. Woof!  Resist austerity!”

Kanellos is a smart dog and he knows that all animals are created equal but some still think they are more equal than others.  Unless we take to the streets – we’ll end up giving huge pots of money to the speculating capitalists who brought us into this hell. 

As Riot Dog will tell you, our future has to be one where those of us in the street come first, not those of us in the financial markets.