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Aussies May Target Bank
by cleaves Sunday, Jan 16 2005, 10:24am
international / social/political / article

The recent [tsunami] tragedy in South Asia revealed the ugly face of Capitalism, specifically the behaviour of Australian banks in not waiving their parasitic fee imposition on financial donations to victims of the tsunami disaster. Let it be known where their priorities lie. Banks needed to be reminded before displaying some humanitarian empathy.

The behaviour of banks was not dissimilar to the sluggish 'actions' of the Bush regime, which failed to respond to the disaster in a timely manner. Only after a prompting from the local and international community did the U.S. begrudgingly offer a relative pittance of $35 million. This sum was soon revised to one billion dollars when the initial amount was compared to the hundreds of millions spent (daily) on the murderous Iraqi military intervention. Feigning generosity now does little to restore the little (if any) credibility the banks and U.S. administration may have had; the ugly real faces beneath the masks have been seen by all.

The Australian people are unanimous in their loathing of parasitic fee structures imposed by Australian banks; deregulation to this extent is clearly unwarranted. The latest display of self-serving avarice only increases hostility toward the banks, which has prompted the following retaliatory response strategy:

One Australian bank would be chosen at random and all financial support in the form of savings and credit accounts would be withdrawn on a given day and transferred to another banking institution (chosen at the discretion of the individual). This could occur after a commitment (to act) was given by at least one third of the population – this is considered the minimum number of participants required to impact a large bank permanently.

Banks may once again learn that it is a privilege to secure the support of the people. It is not a ‘right’ (under deregulation policy) to impose parasitic fees to compensate for the lack of trading skills and enhance share prices. It is the people who hold the viability of any listed institution in the palm of their hands. A consensus and commitment to act is all that is required from the people to realise their dominant role. This is an opportunity for all Australians to display the REAL Aussie spirit and cultural values of the ‘fair go’ and egalitarian ideal.

The above strategy could easily be organised on volunteer web sites; the registration of willing participants, counters and totals for each State, on mirrored servers and the co-ordination of the day of unified action is too difficult to implement. No bank today could survive a strategic coordinated attack/run of withdrawals! A much-needed lesson (for all banks) would be learnt, as the target bank would be selected entirely at random.

Those who would take self-serving advantage of the population may think it in their best interests to refrain from parasitic means to derive income in future.

Bankers and other financial racketeers would learn not to take for granted or undervalue the good will of the people at any time, but especially in times of crisis and humanitarian need.

If banks continued to impose unfair fee structures then another bank could be targeted until the point is driven home. The future viability of all banks remains in the hands of the people.

All that is required is your participation.