Some 200 gather at ‘Make Wall Street Pay' rallies on North Olympic Peninsula
Keith Thorpe/Peninsula Daily News
Connie Hyatt of Sequim, left, and Bill Kildall of Port Angeles take part in a rally Saturday for “Bank Transfer Day,” a grass-roots effort to encourage people to move their money from large nationally operated banking organizations to smaller local banks and credit unions. About 100 people gathered at Bank of America Park in downtown Sequim for the national movement. The Sequim event was hosted by MoveOn.org.
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The rallies were part of a national day of action organized by MoveOn.org members to urge people to move their accounts from large banking firms that received federal bailouts in 2008 to local institutions.
The protests at the rallies were directed at such banks as Bank of America, Chase and Wells Fargo.
“The big banks on Wall Street helped crash the economy and cost millions of people their jobs and their homes,” said Kathryn Grosz of Clallam County MoveOn, who said that at one point, 114 people were counted at the rally at the corner of Sequim Avenue and Washington Street near the Bank of America in Sequim.
Grosz estimated that 80 percent to 90 percent of those who participated in the rally said they didn't need fliers outlining how to close an account because they had already moved their banking to local institutions.
Port Townsend marchers gathered at the triangle park at Kearney Street and Sims Way, said Carol Gallup of the Jefferson County MoveOn Council, who estimated that about 100 participated.
They waved signs while cars and trucks were “honking madly,” Gallup said, before moving on to circle Chase, Wells Fargo and Bank of America while chanting and continuing on to the plaza in front of the Pope Marine Building to hear speeches and hand out literature.
As in Sequim, many participants said they didn't need the fliers about closing accounts.
“We were finding out that people had already just gone ahead and closed their accounts,” Gallup said.
Last modified: November 05. 2011 10:25PM
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