By Liam O'Donoghue

ALAN HABER MAY be best known for founding Students for a Democratic Society, a group that helped enshrine Berkeley as a hotbed of radical politics during the 1960s. But another, lesser-known fruit of his labors continues to thrive in an unimposing storefront space on Shattuck Avenue near the Oakland border.

Established in 1979 to carry on the antiauthoritarian legacy of SDS, the Long Haul collective has spent the past 25 years reincarnating as a meeting place, a library, a performance space, a movie house, an art gallery, and a café – now it assumes all those roles and more. As one node in a growing global network, the Long Haul is a hub of activist culture, where Bay Area residents come to participate in events like a recent "Anarchy Dance Party" and the upcoming "Anti-Gentrification Art Show" (May 9), browse the titles of the Infoshop, and plug into political and social organizations from Food Not Bombs and the East Bay Needle Exchange to microradio broadcasters and medical marijuana growers.

The span of issues covered within the Long Haul's brick walls rivals the wild history of the building itself. When Haber and the other original Long Haulers began work on the space, they had to start with the roof, the last one having burned down during the building's mid-'70s run as a "massage parlor" called Sugar's Den. Before Sugar's it was the Black Panthers house where Huey Newton brandished a shotgun alongside Bobby Seale. The anarchist study group and queer punks who hold weekly events there now barely raise an eyebrow in the neighborhood.

The Long Haul saw an influx of new members in the early '90s, when Slingshot, a quarterly newspaper with a circulation of 12,000 and published mainly by Berkeley students, moved into the building. "Nobody has been here the whole 25 years," says Jesse Palmer, a 12-year participant who volunteers with Slingshot and the Infoshop. "Most of the people who established it in '79 were involved with the struggles of the '60s, but most people here now weren't even alive during the '60s, so it's just a torch that's been passed. We try to build on the people involved before us while maintaining accessibility to new people."

Places like the Infoshop are becoming an increasingly relevant alternative resource, as resentment toward mainstream media outlets continues to grow. The storefront space is filled with racks of zines, packed bookcases, shelves of independent video- and audiotapes, and stacks of flyers, brochures, and newsletters. Counterculture bibles like Maximumrocknroll and EarthFirst! are available for browsing or buying, and in the corridor leading to the café and performance area, a library organized by subjects such as African History and Labor boasts volumes from floor to ceiling. A free and unfiltered computer room features three machines with Internet access and a printer, and a dark room encourages visitors to not only consume but also create independent media.

Access to those facilities is clearly a draw – people who initially visited the Long Haul because of a tenant group like Food Not Bombs often end up working volunteer shifts in the Infoshop. And while each tenant organization is a unique entity, member crossover creates the atmosphere of a unified collective – and helps ensure stability and longevity in a space that has continued to change shape over the years.

Molly, for example, has been a familiar face at the Long Haul since she moved to the East Bay eight months ago, and her progression of involvement is typical. "I knew there were a lot of groups running out of this space," she says. "So I wanted to check it out, to see what fit best. First I helped with building maintenance and painting during a work weekend, then Slingshot, and now I cook for Food Not Bombs and staff shifts at the 'Shop."

"It's always been about transcending single-issue politics," Palmer says, and on a recent Sunday night at the Long Haul that was obvious. A handful of drop-ins munched on vegan treats in the café while a Chicago activist from the Chiapas Peace House Project gave a report-back about the Zapatista rebellion. In the kitchen a Food Not Bombs volunteer named Crow washed dishes after a day of feeding homeless folks. Signature gatherers sat around the Infoshop comparing logs for petitions dealing with everything from gambling to cloning. SDS may be gone, but at the Long Haul a flourishing democratic society lives on.