Around the country this past Saturday, November 5, people fed
up with the power and influence of the big banks (not to mention
their bailouts and bad customer service) moved their money to
credit unions or to small, local banks.
The pressure from Occupy Wall Street on the big banks, combined
with organizing efforts from many progressive groups, including
New Bottom Line, Progressive Change Campaign Committee and
Rebuild the Dream, put some significant force behind the actions
this weekend. Several people who moved their money shared their
experiences with me.
"Once I started getting involved in Occupy Wall Street, I became
much more conscious of my corporate consumption. I realized that
some of the financial choices I had made without thinking --
without even realizing they were choices -- were, in fact,
pro-neoliberal political decisions. Then I decided it was time
to reverse some of those decisions," Ned Resnikoff, a graduate
student in CUNY's Labor Studies department, told me.
"Our nonprofit organization moved our business accounts from
Bank of America to a credit union in support of the Occupy Wall
Street movement, and bank transfer day," Jonathan Stone of Walk
Against Rape, an organization that works to unite rape
survivors, said. "As a nonprofit that survives solely on
donations and volunteer hours, we were sick of fees, bad
customer service and banks that fuel our broken monetary system
focused on profits and not the well-being of the society which
it preys upon. We need to move toward a system that focuses on
human well-being as the source of wealth, not money."
"When I showed up at Amalgamated [the union-owned bank featured
in AlterNet's guide to moving your money] on the 14th, the
security guy apologized about the long line," Frank Smith, a
Brooklyn, NY resident, told me. All of the chairs in the waiting
area were full of people waiting to open new accounts. "The rep
who helped me had skipped lunch and was, in fact, staying late
to accommodate the line of people who were in the doors as of
closing time," he said. "The branch manager was also engaged in
opening new accounts in order to stem the tide."