ABSTRACT
The Berlin financial crisis was but symptomatic of a bigger problem and shortly after the genesis of Berlin Umsonst, Hamburg Umsonst also emerged. While factions of Umsonst were exhausted or silenced by state apparatuses, a notable contingent made up of Berlin and Hamburg campaigners were conspicuously present at the demonstrations against the G8 in Rostock, Germany in 2007. The necessity for substantially rethinking modes of political praxis beyond the conventional marches, strikes and demonstrations has sparked numerous experimental activities over the past decade, to which the Umsonst encounters have contributed. This has occurred on both macro and micro levels, from the establishment of transnational precarity networks to the creation of smaller, encounter oriented cells such as the Umsonst campaigns. As Berlin Umsonst acknowledged from the outset, it is already quite clear to us that this is not a transferable political demand.
