Abstract:
This article discusses a case of popular social response to imposed austerity and recession in Greece. It focuses on the antimiddleman
movement in an Athens suburb. It also addresses the broader picture of the current Greek crisis, explaining how
participants in this grassroots response extend their activity beyond food distribution, beginning to imagine modes of economic
conduct and interaction different from those currently dominant in Greece. I explore their efforts to turn the food market they
have established in Athens into a formal co-operative which links consumers in their neighbourhood directly to selected farmers
through bonds of solidarity, and to work with others to create a network of similar co-operatives which will span the whole
country. I argue that their endeavours strongly resemble the co-operativism and practical socialism advocated by important
social theorists such as Mauss and Polanyi, and suggest that it may be important for the young activists in Athens to learn more
about their ideas.
