Occupy Sarasota to March on Banks Saturday

On Saturday, the Occupy Sarasota movement, in solidarity with Occupy Wall Street, will meet at 9:30 a.m. for an assembly and march to local banks in the downtown financial district.

The assembly begins at Five Points Park.

In a news release sent out by the group, it said that the march “is the next step in the evolution to show the bailed out banks how the people feel and they will be transferring their money out of the 'Too Big to Fail' large banks and depositing their money into small, independent banks and credit unions.”

The release added: “The march will proceed from the park to Main Street and around the downtown financial district to identify the mega-banks that we are requesting people transfer their money out of.”

According to national news reports on Thursday, the movement appears to be working. More people in the last 30 days have opened credit union accounts than the total number for 2010.

"In the past month, more than 650,000 new accounts have been opened at credit unions alone, according to the Credit Union National Association, a trade group representing credit unions. That compares to 600,000 new accounts in all of 2010."

Occupy Sarasota building at the intersection of Main Street and Orange Avenue.

Since that day, the group has been near the Unconditional Surrender statue.

The group’s mission, according to the public Facebook invite: “Together we can ensure that these banking institutions will ALWAYS remember the 5th of November! If the 99% removes our funds from the major banking institutions to non-profit credit unions on or by this date, we will send a clear message that conscious consumers won’t support companies with unethical business practices.”