Day Two: Student Walk-Out in Portland

As part of a nationwide day of action to mark the fifth anniversary of the start of the Iraq War, 1500 to 2000 students in the Portland metropolitan area walked out of class on March 20.

Trash Orchestra was was there supporting the walkout, resistance to business as usual, youth liberation, and students taking greater control of their lives. It was thrilling to see 500 young people taking the street, demanding an end to a war that will affect their future. Hundreds of students chanting the lyrics to our songs. "Street by street! Block by block! Taking it all back!'

More than just symbolic, the walkout is also direct action, halting for at least one day the damage that these institutions do to our planet and our minds. Schools are preparing, preening, and educating students for entry into the middle-class world. This work -- something we consider the unquestioned and unavoidable dues of our citizenship -- and the consumerism that comes with it, is very much the problem, destroying what's good and beautiful on this planet and tearing apart the fabric of our relationships with each other and the Earth. Universities are very much part of the war machine, often doing weapons research and testing, administering weapons labs, and selling students into years of perilous military service.

Students took to the streets yesterday to say No to all that.