Lockdown Defends the Albany Bulb! More Support Needed

From the Earth First! Newswire - May 16, 2014

Disclaimer: The views expressed here are not the official position of the IWW (or even the IWW’s EUC) and do not necessarily represent the views of anyone but the author’s.

A lockdown at the Albany Bulb ensured defense of the land for one more day yesterday.

Activist with the IWW Environmental Caucus and EF!er, Elliot Hughes, explained, “Today, I locked down to a backhoe and negotiated with Albany police that the Amber’s house and the two barricaded roads leading to it would not be demolished for the day after hearing cops threaten to demolish her house early in the morning. We need support to stop the eviction of the Albany Bulb ASAP!.”

The Albany Bulb is, according to its declaration, “an Autonomous Zone, a space where Art and Music continue to flourish, where People assemble Freely, where Dogs run unleashed, and where long-term Residents can continue to maintain and improve their Homesteads.”

The Bulb is known has been known as an anarchic place for a long time. Tolerance for camping has allowed human and nonhuman inhabitants to live and flourish among the tidal mudflats, sub tidal eel grass and salt marsh gum plants. The area is populated by barn owls, snakes, hawks, songbirds, and black-tailed hares, along with vegetation like Himalayan blackberries, acacia trees, and palms.

According to the website, Share the Bulb, “Over the past three decades, Nature and a particularly resourceful group of homeless people have reclaimed the Bulb as a wild space and a community space. The combination of reclaimed nature, community, and outsider art have made this former dump one of the most beautiful peninsulas into the San Francisco Bay, and has attracted daily dog-walkers, day-strollers, curious wanderers, picnickers, and others to an amazing place that reminds us of the many ways humans need the wild”

Last November, the state tried to forcibly evict the bulb, leading to barricades and an encampment. Residents sued the city to halt the eviction, and the suit was settled last month.

Amber has lived in the Bulb for eight years, and has adamantly rejected the settlement agreement, along with her partner. Hughes’s action, negotiating the police away from destroying Amber’s house, has kept spirits high. But there is much to do!

A call to action has been issued:

“The police and city illegally destroyed a very nice shack that an older man was living in so in response and preparation for the reoccupation, 9 blockades were built at major choke-points of the Bulb to keep the cops from evicting the last remaining residents. Each barricade was made of large rocks/slabs of concrete and large branches that were cut down by the city stacked up to be about 5 feet tall. Unfortunately we did not have enough people to defend the barricades and they were demolished this after noon. We need your help!

For the reoccupation we need tents, blankets, tools, building supplies, food, water, walkie talkies, and any other things that would be useful for a long term land reclamation.

Please visit and camp out as often as possible or support us in anyway you can. We need people to make new art, have meetings, build new shacks, do copwatch, or have bonfires and concerts.

Please spread this call for reoccupation to as many people as possible. We need people to hold as much space for as long as possible!

For more information about the struggle at the Albany Bulb Visit: sharethebulb.org

Keep the Bulb Wild and Autonomous!”