‘Although Athens is not São Paulo, it is not any more a normal European capital,’ warns Yannis Almpanis, one of the organisers of a ‘solidarity mission’ of European social movements visiting Greece in late February. And he’s right. The consequences of the austerity programme can be felt on the streets – not only in the latent threat of crime but in the beggars lining the pavements, the queuing migrants desperate for help, the political graffiti covering every wall and the gangs of riot police loitering on street corners.

Greece today is in the middle of a wild experiment, a testbed for neoliberal fantasists zealously dismantling the structures that underpin society. But it is also a laboratory of resistance, a place where traditional movements and new social forces are trying to work out how – or whether – they can work together. As Greek economist Merica Frangakis puts it: ‘Athens is the epicentre of the earthquake, the centre of Europe. And it’s all happening now.’

Austerity on the ground

This is what austerity means on the ground: on 12 February the Greek parliament abolished social housing. It voted to close the Workers’ Housing Organisation (OEK), the only body providing low-cost homes to workers. With the same stroke it shut the Workers’ Social Benefits Organisation (OEE), which runs free nurseries and subsidised leisure schemes.

And here’s the bigger scandal: neither of these organisations is funded by the state. Both are financed by direct contributions from workers and employers, which are being snatched by the government to pay the debt.