At five in the morning perhaps 1000 Occupy protesters converged on Harry Bridges Park in Long Beach California, where the legendary Queen Mary Ship is docked. The crowd which was from all age groups made it's way in a march toward Terminal J of the Port of Long Beach, the home of SSA Marine. SSA Marine is a holding of Goldman Sachs, an investment firm that was one of the main progenitors of the 2008 housing and derivatives breakdown.

For an evaluation of Goldman's history see ...........
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goldman_Sachs.


The marchers were eventually split off from each other by the Los Angeles Port Police. However a group of 300 to 500 people successfully blocked a road that led to one of the SSA piers for a few hours causing traffic snarls and the like.
At this point the police phalanx declared the march an unlawful assembly and threatened the Gandian / King inspired demonstrators with possible bodily harm from batons, percussion weapons, tasers and finally......nonlethal dog bites.

The Port Police eventually physically pushed the people back for 100 yards or so, at which point the nonviolent protesters turned and walked back to Harry Bridges Park.

The rain began to fall heavily as the crowd of now about 200 began to disperse.

Some arrests were made. One for failure to disperse, one for resisting and a number of pedestrian traffic violations were issued.The well known Los Angeles organizer Kwazi Nkrumah was arrested and charged with failure to obey a police officer and walking in a roadway. He is out on bail of 10,000 dollars.

The reason for the port shut down is explained at.....
http://www.occupytheports.com/why/

Senior Vice President Bob Watters of SSA has argued against the Occupy movements claims, stating that Goldman Sachs owns less than 3% of an investment fund that has a minority stake in the company which he says is "family owned". Watters also stated That SSA is the largest employer of International Longshore and Warehouse Union members on the West Coast.

The ILWU which has a membership of 15,000 dockworkers has distanced itself from the Occupy movement while still saying that it "shares the Occupy movement's concerns about the future of the middle class and corporate abuses."
ILWU President Robert McEllrath

The Occupy the Ports Action was taken in Oakland ,Portland,Longview Washington, Anchorage Alaska, Seattle, San Diego and Houston texas.. The ports were shut down completely in Oakland and Longview while a partial shutdown occurred in Portland. More actions are ongoing in Oakland.


For more info on....

Port Of Los Angeles
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Port_of_Los_Angeles

Harry Bridges
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Bridges


Robert Stuart Lowden