slick and incredibly well organised, managed, maintained and supported. If you look at italy's biggest and most popular social cente Leoncavello the level of participation was extraordinary. They had 100,000 people a year coming through their doors, several full time paid workers along with hundreds of committed volunteers, even got one member elected onto the local council. Generally it's the model that casa pound adopted - a movement of means coupled with a rich cultural base (public enemy played there when they toured italy instead of a normal concert venue) and regular political activities (demos, campaigns etc), built into the community.
Whether that's specific to Italy, or europe in general, this desire to create alternative and sustainable forms of political engagement outside the traditional structures of power i don't know, but as a form of autonomous political and social organising it's hard to beat.
