The solidarity clinics that emerged during the 2008-2015 crisis protests in Greece left behind seminal experiences of direct democracy. Like other self-organized projects that emerged during the crisis, the clinics offered people an opportunity to overcome social hardship together. In her contribution to the “Deep Democracy” series, Dilan Köse explores how these episodes may lay the groundwork for future social protests and the formation of direct, democratic alternatives to increasingly hollow liberal-democratic models.
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To avert national bankruptcy, Greece implemented structural adjustment measures imposed by the Troika from 2010 to 2019. These measures included wage, job, and spending cuts, as well as privatization. Between 2010 and 2015, the population widely resisted these crisis measures, which manifested as large-scale mass mobilizations. Notably, the December 2008 movement and the 2011 Square movement were symptoms of a crisis of state legitimacy. As a result of these protests, many self-organized projects emerged with the aim of fundamentally transforming society. In addition to social cooperatives, neighborhood assemblies, and grassroots unions, protest participants founded numerous self-organized solidarity clinics.
In line with philosopher and social theorist Cornelius Castoriadis’s understanding of democracy, these projects can be interpreted as building blocks of a direct democratic alternative to the liberal model of democracy. This is because they aimed to abolish the hierarchical organization of modern capitalist societies through collective self-organization. Castoriadis believed that the state of alienation expressed in all areas of capitalist societies could only be overcome by protest movements striving to establish direct democracy. This would entail questioning existing forms of organization and action, as well as managing the organization of society and production itself.
Accessible healthcare for all
An examination of self-organized solidarity clinics in Greece reveals a collective effort to democratize the health sector. These clinics primarily aim to provide free medical care to those who no longer have access to the public health system. In 2013, approximately 30 percent of the population in Greece lacked health insurance. Many lost their jobs – and thus their health benefits – during the crisis.
The Metropolitan Social Clinic Ellinikos (MKIE) in Athens is a clear example of how the need for free access to healthcare in Greece has increased as a result of crisis measures. According to MKIE statistics, the clinic treated over 100 patients a day from 2012 onward. MKIE was established as a direct result of the 2011 nationwide square movement. Its six founding members were all doctors who were part of the medical team at the occupied Syntagma Square in Athens. Due to their involvement in the occupations, they decided to create a permanent medical care structure to support uninsured individuals.
Further solidarity clinics were opened in 2012, particularly in the major cities of Athens and Thessaloniki. A study found that there were 33 such clinics nationwide in 2012, seven of which were in Athens and four in Thessaloniki. The coordination center Solidarity for All, launched in 2012, facilitated the establishment of many solidarity clinics. This initiative was co-founded by the left-wing SYRIZA party and supported the clinics mostly through donations. Many solidarity clinics were also supported by local authorities.
Reforming the state healthcare system
Calls for reform of the state healthcare system complemented the demand for accessible healthcare for all. For example, the Athens Social Solidarity Clinic (KIFA) demanded the introduction of compulsory insurance for all citizens. Many solidarity clinics hoped that the government change in 2015 would bring a socio-political turnaround. MKIE members expected the SYRIZA-led government to rebuild the healthcare system, allowing the MKIE to reduce or cease its activities.
In addition to the solidarity clinics that aimed to reform the healthcare system, a few projects sought to transform the sector entirely. First and foremost among these was the Social Space for Health (KCI) in Athens. This social clinic, which is no longer active, was founded before the Greek sovereign debt crisis began. It originated from the Assembly for Health working group, which was founded by some protesters in Athens during the December 2008 protests. Their attempt to develop an ‘alternative healthcare’ concept as an alternative to the state healthcare system culminated in the occupation of a vacant building in 2009, where the KCI social clinic and other social projects were established.
Initially, the clinic served as a health advice center and a venue for workshops and discussions on health issues. However, due to the crisis and the collapse of the state healthcare system that followed, the members felt compelled to transform their project. Starting in October 2011, the 10-member team, which included doctors, psychologists, and other volunteers, offered free medical care in the neighborhood twice a week.
Direct democratic structures
Like all other self-organized solidarity clinics in Greece, this project established direct democratic structures. The KCI’s central organizational, decision-making, and coordinating body was the general assembly, which met once a week. However, apart from similarities in structure and working methods, the KCI differed from other solidarity clinics in several respects, which can be attributed to the political stance of the project’s founders.
Most of the founders came from the anti-authoritarian and anarchist movements in Greece. The project had no formal status, rejected cooperation with state institutions, and was financed exclusively through donations. Unlike solidarity clinics supported by Solidarity for All, KCI members treated insured and uninsured patients. Despite this principle of equality, the project did not welcome people with racist, nationalist, homophobic, or fascist ideas as patients or members.
Another central goal of KCI members was to encourage patients to participate actively in the project and play a decisive role in decisions about their lives and bodies. Members believed active participation could empower patients to take responsibility for their health and contribute to a new awareness. However, this appeal did not motivate most patients to participate in the project. Participants in a self-help group offered by the KCI were an exception. They initially attended to receive support, but eventually began regularly attending the KCI’s plenary meetings as well.
Another unique feature of the KCI solidarity clinic was its attempt to deconstruct the asymmetrical power relations usually existing between doctors and patients. In practice, this meant that KCI doctors gave patients space to express their needs and participate in decisions about their health. KCI doctors also did not wear white coats, symbols of doctors’ authority over patients. Members viewed patient treatment as an anthropocentric process in which everyone participated equally.
The KCI no longer exists today. Its demise was due to various reasons. Some members were exhausted, while others had personal reasons for leaving the project. Additionally, there were internal conflicts.
Between appropriation and radicalization
A change in the law introduced in 2016 by the SYRIZA government relieved the work of the solidarity clinics by enabling the 2.5 million uninsured people nationwide to be treated in public hospitals again. However, there is another reason why most solidarity clinics have ceased operating. Five years ago, the current government, led by the right-wing conservative party Nea Dimokratia, banned solidarity clinics from operating. Most solidarity clinics in Greece have since been incorporated and operate under the local authorities. Accordingly, they complement the public health system rather than challenge it.
The KIFA social clinic took a different path. The change in the law prompted its members to found the nonprofit association Medical Solidarity Center Athens (MSA). This allows them to continue at least part of their work today. They focus on distributing medication to refugees.
Additionally, there is at least one other social clinic in Athens that opposes the state: the Self-Organized Health Structure of Exarchia (ADYE). Founded in 2013 by members of the anarchist movement in response to the crisis, it is located in the central Athens district of Exarchia, once the epicenter of radical resistance. Its principles and working methods are similar to those of the KCI. Like the MSA, the ADYE has shifted its focus to providing basic medical care for refugees.
Experiences of collective self-organization
Above all, the solidarity clinics that emerged during the crisis protests left behind the experiences of direct democracy and the transformative potential that emerged from them. Similar to other self-organized projects that emerged during the crisis, the solidarity clinics offered many people in Greece an opportunity to collectively overcome social hardship in everyday life. They provided free basic medical care for patients. The clinics’ founders and active members also tested a different form of healthcare based on collectivity, participation, political equality, social inclusion, and solidarity.
Most importantly, however, the experiences of collective self-organization fostered a new political consciousness among the members. Through active participation, members discovered their power to act, realizing they could take control of their health and lives to a certain extent. These processes of subjectification may lay the groundwork for future social protests and the formation of direct democratic alternatives to increasingly hollow liberal democratic capitalist models.
Note from the editors: This article draws on the author’s field research conducted in Greece between 2013 and 2016 for her book “Krisenproteste in Griechenland: Transformatorische Potenziale der Selbstorganisation” (Crisis Protests in Greece: Transformative Potentials of Self-Organization), published in 2025 by Transcript and available via open access.