Yesterday saw a mass walk out of students across olchester in protest against the war on Iraq.

30 Students from the Sixth Form walked out at 9am, after leafleting for a mass walk out at 1:20pm. Demonstrating at the war memorial throughout thre morning, the students displayed a highly visible display against the war.

Meanwhile, students from the Colchester Institute rallied on campus, building for a mass walk out of staff and students at 12:30pm. Meeting up outside the Sixth Form at 1pm, the two groups converged outside, growing in size as more and more students joined the group. At 1:30 the coimbined group of students, now numbering over 250 marched down the middle of the hiugh street. Joined by students who had walked out from schools throughout the town, numbers swelled to close to 400 at points. After a mass blockade and rally outside the town hall, the students marched down the high street again towards the war memorial.

However, on tjhe way, students led 3 spontanious sit downs, over tjhe course of the street, blocking the high street for a total of an hour. This involved almost the entire march, almost 400 students. However, increasingly heavyhanded police tactics forced the group to move on, after personal threats of arrest against individuals involved. Marching around town for a further 45 minutes, the group managed to get past police lines and back onto the high street, returning again to the Town Hall, and blockading the entrance again with a sit down protest, until 3:15pm. Again, almost all present (at this time still over 300) took part.

Sixth Form Student Alan Johnson said "On the whole, I think it was very successful, especially considering the spontaneity of the protest. Many more turned up than we expected.".

Jess Barrell, Another Sixth Form student, threatened with arrest as a ringleader added "'People had their doubts, but we proved them wrong, it shows how many peole oppose to this war, and lets hope our message was recieved.".

This action follows the recent arrest of 24 Colchester activists after a non-violent sit-down bloackade of the barracks on March 8th.