"Fascism is capitalism in decay." -- Vladimir Lenin

As recently as a mere decade ago I am certain that if anyone had described a future where American banks would call in police & SWAT teams to prevent customers from closing their accounts and that they would actually be arrested for trying to reclaim their savings, such a person would at least have been laughed at and ridiculed - and maybe considered a prime candidate for psychiatric evaluation. Red China or Cuba perhaps, but certainly not in America - that bastion of freedom and capitalism!

Well, that day is here and the brutality of the state will only be amplified as growing economic woes cause the powers-that-be to take on the unmistakable character of fascism. For the moment though, you won't see this reported in the mainstream media - except perhaps to disparage the customers!

Big Banks Refuse to Let People Close Accounts

Posted on October 16, 2011 by WashingtonsBlog

Big Banks Try to Stop Customers From Moving Their Money

I’ve long supported the campaign to “Move Your Money” from the giant, insolvent banks who take billions in bailouts and use the money to speculate and to corrupt the system to smaller banks. See this and this.

The Occupy Wall Street protesters have announced that November 5th is “Bank Transfer Day”, a targeted day to “Move Your Money”.

The big banks are trying to preempt the efforts of their customers to move their money to smaller banks.

This week, protesters were arrested when they tried to close their Citibank accounts:

And a Bank of American branch in Santa Cruz refused to let protesters close their accounts, saying they could not be protesters and customers at the same time:

In August, Bank of America used police (and reportedly swat teams) to stop St. Louis Bank of America customers from closing their accounts: