further to S.Lott's reply, class variables get passed to metaclass new method and can be accessed through the dictionary when a metaclass is defined. So, class variables can be accessed even before classes are created and instantiated.
for example:
class meta(type):
def __new__(cls,name,bases,dicto):
# two chars missing in original of next line ...
if dicto['class_var'] == 'A':
print 'There'
class proxyclass(object):
class_var = 'A'
__metaclass__ = meta
...
...