My 4-year-old, Soluna, prides herself in being a good chant leader. This is true. She is loud. She commands attention.  She rarely mixes up the words. And since the Occupy Movement began last fall, she’s had plenty of time to get better at it!

Just this past Saturday, Soluna was chanting “You’re no fair! Pay your share!” with her friends outside of Oakland Chinatown’s Bank of America while holding up a dragon as her dad and I closed our last big-bank checking account.  (We opened up new accounts at a local community bank and credit union.) This was part of a planned Colorful Mamas of the 99% Lunar New Year Celebration and Protest, Occupy 2012: “Share the Fortune,” which included a children’s skit, dragon/lion dance, march, chants and over 30 families. It was, if anything, lots of fun and empowering for the whole family.

I know plenty of families that have sat on the sidelines of the Occupy Movement, watching the protests on TV, unsure of why this is happening in the first place.  As simply as possible, I’ll tell you why we are protesting. Like millions across our country, our family members have lost jobs, been impacted by foreclosures, lost health insurance, and worry about the future we are handing our children.  As mamas, we are sick and tired of corporations and politicians putting profits before people. We believe it’s time to put a stop to their greed and hold them accountable.

For instance,

• While public investments in our children – like schools, parks and libraries - are being decimated all across the country Bank of America and other big corporations – the same entities that got us into this mess - continue to dodge taxes.
• In 2009 and 2010, Bank of America paid no federal corporate taxes, and actually reported a tax refund of almost $1billion, by holding earnings abroad# and paying out $96 billion in bonuses and compensation.# If Bank of America brought this money home, it would contribute $2.6 billion in US taxes.
• Bank of America continues to cheat families out of their homes. Bank of America now faces a lawsuit brought by the Massachusetts Attorney General for foreclosing on homes without legal authority, using false documents, and misleading     homeowners about loan modification programs.
• Foreclosures in California have displaced over 1,000,000 children since 2007,# and have created billions in lost property tax revenue.#  This revenue has a direct impact on the quality of life for all of us—cutting our schools, parks and libraries.

So much is at stake for our children.

Inspired by the Occupy Movement, Colorful Mamas of the 99% emerged out of a local Bay Area playgroup/support group for mamas of color. We are teachers, lawyers, organizers, stay-at-home moms, writers, and non-profit workers that just believe this moment is so critical for the future of our children and our families should be at the center of this movement. Our protests are grounded in our families’ values of sharing, justice and cooperation.  We make sure that there are age appropriate workshops and skits to teach our kids about what we are protesting. We are creative. We keep things fun and light, but we also do solid research, have a media plan and ensure a safe protest space where our children are at the center.  At our first protest, we closed the bank for over an hour and nobody was arrested while the police and security guards smiled and waved to our kids!

We hope more families think critically, organize and help grow this movement.

For more information about our protests and to get a toolkit for planning actions and the curriculum we use with our children, please check out: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Colorful-Mamas-of-the-99/312158145464511
Here is a video from our first Colorful Mamas Protest, a timeout for Big Banks: