Every time the mass media launch something as a means to overcome the economic crisis and at the same time the Communist Party of Greece considers it as a means to disorient people from the real problem, we suppose something bad happens. However, in the case of the “potato movement” the bad thing is that the mass media try to depoliticize all initiatives of civil society and the Communist Party of Greece turns away from such initiatives it doesn’t control.

Recently, in Greece, consumers can buy potatoes straight from producers 60-70% cheaper than before. What does this really indicate about the formation of producer-consumer networks backed by municipal councils? If someone observes Greek government’s rhetoric of the last years, they will realise that they had transformed wholesalers and shopkeepers into holy cows of Greek economy.

During the “potato movement” the formers found themselves removed from the foreground. The Greek merchant occupied the centre of economic life thanks to his unique “achievements”: He managed to transform every ground floor in all Greek city centers into a shop and make Greek cities the most expensive in Europe. Prices don’t decrease even during the crisis. Middlemen are typical Greek merchants who make money on the cost of producers and consumers. Consumers are paying sometimes 100, 200 or 300% much more than the producer had sold.

Consequently the “potato movement” illuminated some malfunctions of the economic life in Greece. On the one hand producers realised that they cannot depend on merchants’ good intentions and that they must mobilise if they were to gain their life; and on the other hand consumers realised that prices remained so high because of merchants’ speculation. Now they can bypass middlemen and earn both of them.

Even if the farmer movement was not strong during the last decades and the consumer movement practically didn’t exist, fortunately for Greek society the era when self-consumption and solidarity among households was widespread is closer than thought.

Producer-consumer networks, growth of cooperatives, formation of social health centers that provide free health care, teachers associations offer free lessons, initiatives for distribution of bread to poor and homeless, and the commercial exchanges in local currencies constitute some of the means the affected social strata invented in order to survive.

These means even if they are products of crisis, bring out more structural problems of Greek society as well as new perspectives. Revitalization of solidarity against social Darwinism, projection of social needs instead of profit, bypassing of middlemen on behalf of producers and consumers, and the regeneration of the vital forces of a robust civil society against a bankrupted political system and a failed neoliberal policy are necessary conditions for a different society. Is this just a discussion on how to deal with a so difficult economic situation or an opportunity for the affected social strata to change their social and political orientations? If I remember well, democracy in ancient Greece and socialism of our era constituted in the very first moment only the former.

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