2011 was a significant year for Tibet, with both tragic and encouraging events taking place. But if the past year has shown us one thing it’s that the movement for Tibetan freedom and independence is alive and well. In fact, it’s developing and advancing while again and again China’s policies in Tibet have been exposed as both brutal and backward.
SFT UK has been proud to be a part of the Tibet movement in 2011; a year where dictators have fallen like dominos across the world. Read about our year here, and let’s carry on advancing the struggle in 2012!
Thank you to everybody who has supported Tibet this year, from UK-based Tibetans who’ve attended successful events like the parliamentary debate on Tibet to celebrities among the 40,000 people who signed the Stand up for Tibet petition. And thanks to SFT UK supporters who attended Action Camp and our training conference or who gave donations and joined the rangzen circle in 2011. Without your help, we at SFT UK would not be able to push both ourselves and the Tibet movement forward in the UK. Read about what we’ve done together in 2011 below.
Read the 2011 review on Issuu (now download needed)
But there’s still a long fight ahead of us. The Tibet movement has diversified in 2011. Tibetans in Tibet are getting smarter by the day, using new methods of civil disobedience to challenge Chinese state control and assert their national and cultural identity. But they’re also on the edge, demonstrated by the tragic spate of self-immolations this year and the continuing desperation of the Chinese authorities to crack down on dissent at the cost of innocent Tibetans’ lives.
Tibetans in Tibet are leading this movement. As the Dalai Lama said in 2011, they are our boss, we’re here to support them. It’s a real resistance movement in Tibet right now, while more and more young Tibetan leaders emerge in exile. The mountain we have to climb is great, but that never stopped Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela… and it didn’t stop the Tunisians, the Egyptians, the South Sudanese and so many other resistance movements in 2011!
The resistance movement in Tunisia and political theatre in London
We’re looking forward to another landmark year for Tibet in 2012, and SFT UK are looking to really establish ourselves more as well. We’ve developed as an organisation in our own right and intend to have a permanent staff position this year, enabling us to be more streamlined and strategic. But we also know there’s likely to be more tragedy in 2012; this is the reality for Tibetans living under the oppressive Chinese rule.
A year of contrasts; prayers at Kirti monastery and troops flooding Tibetan streets in 2011
In 2012, look out for some of these key events and opportunities:
-The mass lobby of parliament, 7th March
Mark Lhakar by joining the mass lobby; it’ll be during the day so please book the day off work if you need to. After the parliamentary debate on Tibet in December, we’re in a good place to urge MPs to take things forward. SFT UK will be holding lobby training sessions within the Tibetan community in January so please come along.
-Uprising Day march, 10th March
10th March is on a Saturday this year, and it’s also 100 years since Tibet’s last official declaration of independence. In 1912, the Dalai Lama was living in exile in India when Chinese troops attempted to invade. Tibetans pushed them back, forcing them to surrender and leave Tibet. We don’t expect China to leave Tibet in 2012, but we need as many people there as possible to show that we in the UK want them to get out of Tibet.
-The Enough! campaign
Sadly, it’s quite possible we’ll see more self-immolations in Tibet in 2012, as pamphlets seen in Ngaba say more are willing to take this extreme act. That’s why we’ll be building on our success in 2011 to push for multi-lateral action from world governments to end the situation which is driving Tibetans to breaking point.
-Dalai Lama UK visit, June
The Tibetan spiritual leader is likely to be giving teachings in London, Manchester and Glasgow this year. As always, this is a great opportunity both to meet new supporters at the teachings and to talk about the situation in Tibet in the media.
Nomad rights
The Nomad Rights campaign will also kick into gear in 2012. Time’s running out for Tibet’s nomads; China aims to force them all into reservation-style tenement housing by 2015. For the sake of Tibet and the global environment, we need to stand up for nomad rights just as we have over the self-immolations.
-The Lhakar movement, every Wednesday!
Look out for Tibetans in Tibet launching more new, inventive ways of resisting Chinese rule in 2012, and Tibetans in exile continuing to stand in solidarity by observing Lhakar themselves.
-More hard times for China
2011 has seen an unprecedented scale of protests in China and occupied territories, including not just Tibet, East Turkestan and Inner Mongolia but a huge amount of protests by Chinese people against the state, including massive acts of defiance in Dailan and Wukan. ‘Stability’ is the buzz word in China, but how long can the CCP hold off this kind of popular discontent?
-New Chinese President Xi Jinping, around October-November
It’ll be time to start thinking up new chants in 2012 as Xi Jinping takes over from Hu Jintao as China’s next President. He’s an interesting character who’s father treasured a watch given to him by the Dalai Lama and who dissapeared after denouncing the Tiananmen massacre, but we expect Xi himself to be as much of a hardliner as Hu Jintao. He’s sure to be making overseas trips soon, so we’ll be making our voices heard.
-SFT UK training conference
In around October we’ll be staging our annual training conference at a UK university. We’ll also be stepping up our training of students in seperate sessions. If you’re a student, or even if you’re not, we encourage you to come along for a weekend of fun, interactive and informative hands-on activist training! Watch this space for more details.
So thanks again for helping us push the Tibet movement forward in 2011, and let’s keep the ball rolling in 2012, making it ever harder and more costly for China to hold on to Tibet. Happy new year from the SFT UK team, and Tibet will be free!
SFT UK is run mainly by volunteers who use our own resources. You can help us grow by joining the rangzen circle; to help us campaign not just now but all year, every year until Tibet is free.
