OCCUPY SAN DIEGO LEADS LOCAL EFFORTS TO WITHDRAW MONEY FROM BIG BANKS

Printer-friendly versionPrinter-friendly version Share this

 Local Occupy members to meet with banking industry representatives as widespread account closures get bankers' attention


November 2, 2011 (San Diego) – The Occupy movement is now making its impact felt directly on big banks blamed for the financial meltdown.

 

Across the nation and in San Diego, supporters are heeding calls to “move your money” by this weekend, closing accounts at big multi-national financial institutions and transferring their money into locally-owned banks and credit unions. 

 

Today in San Diego, labor leaders joined Occupy protesters in a march to the financial district. Lorena Gonzalez, secretary-treasurer of the San Diego-Imperial Counties Labor Council led a group that entered Wells Fargo and closed accounts. A similar march and rally is planned against Bank of America on Saturday, November 5.

 

Across the country, people are urged to shut down accounts by this weekend at major banks including Citibank, Chase and Union Bank as well as the institutions named above.

 

It appears that some banks may be discomforted over growing call for financial reforms that begin with the Occupy Wall Street movement and have now spread around the world, sparking protests in over 950 cities. This week, Bank of America announced it would drop a $5 per transaction fee on debit cards in response to overwhelming protests from customers.

 

Ray Lutz of El Cajon, an organizer of the San Diego Occupy protests, says he encourages all customers of big banks to “withdraw all your funds and move them to a credit union.”
Occupy San Diego will be included in a City Council Banking Committee meeting on October 17. Lutz revealed that “all the banks sit around a table—and we’re invited to come and interact with them,” he wrote in an e-mail to Occupy supporters, adding, “That could be simply great!”

 

The group has also organized an on-line petition in hopes of persuading San Diego City Council members to pass a resolution in support of the Occupy movement, as some other cities including Los Angeles have already done. The petition is available online at http://www.copswiki.org/Common/OccupySanDiego.
 


Error message

Support community news in the public interest! As nonprofit news, we rely on donations from the public to fund our reporting -- not special interests. Please donate to sustain East County Magazine's local reporting and/or wildfire alerts at https://www.eastcountymedia.org/donate to help us keep people safe and informed across our region.

Comments

This is awesome! They (big

This is awesome! They (big banks) push, We (customers) push BACK. We have what they want ($). We will dictate the terms. 'Bout time!