A Tourist’s Guide to Anarchism

Skoros: Anti-Consumption in Crisis

Skoros Collective (2015)

Film Review

This film is about the Skoros collective in Exarcheia,* Athens’ infamous fascist-free zone. Skoros operates a secondhand store in rented space, unlike many Exarcheia businesses, run as squats in abandoned buildings. Skoros formed during the 2008 global economic crisis, which (owing to skullduggery by Goldman Sachs, the IMF and the European Central Bank) hit Greece especially hard. See The Real Cause of Greece’s Economic Crisis. Customers, which include many refugees housed in Exarcheia squats, are allowed to select three items per visit. The store is staffed by collective members as unpaid volunteers. Since the film was released in 2015, the store has become a tourist attraction – listed in A Guide to Shopping in Athens and featured in the Independent travel section.

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*Exarcheia is a self-governing anarchist community spanning four decades. There is a recent effort by Greek authorities to evict squatters from Exarcheia’s abandoned public buildings, but it looks to be an extended process. See

Greece: Exarcheia under police occupation!

and

Ministry Issues Ultimatum

and

Airb Bnb Exarcheia