Students for a Free Tibet UK

Students for a Free Tibet was founded in New York City in 1994 by a group of Tibetans and young students and supporters. The concept of SFT was borne from the understanding of the critical role students and young people have played in freedom struggles throughout history.

Since that time, SFT has grown into an international network of national groups and university chapters in more than 35 countries. Today, we have more than 650 high school, university and community chapters and one full-time office in New York City. The international network is run by students and non-students on mainly a volunteer basis. SFT UK was founded by students in 2003 and has university chapters all across the country. It is a volunteer-run organisation which is growing as a Tibet Support Group in the UK and is a key member of the coalition of UK Tibet Support Groups. We also work increasingly on online campaigning and grassroots work with a wider context.

2010
In 2010, a new kind of Tibetan resistance really came to the fore inside Tibet; what we call the Tibetan Renaissance. It involves Tibetans from all walks of life, not just monks, nuns and ‘traditional’ dissidents, celebrating their unique culture and demanding freedom in clever new ways. The new generation of Tibetan activists are using the arts; films, music, poetry, social media networking and technology to both underline Tibetan national and cultural pride and to get around Chinese state controls- controls which are increasing as China spends more and more on trying to control Tibetans and prevent them from maintaining their distinct culture. The fact that China needs to spend more on internal ‘security’ now than on its vast army, and the fact that if anything such resistance is increasing only serves to demonstrate how costly it is for China to hold onto Tibet.

Mass student protests in Tibet in 2010 and SFT UK’s Poetry in Resistance cultural event

So SFT UK launched its ‘Renaissance Series’ of events to celebrate Tibetan culture and support Tibetans in Tibet- making sure the voices of writers, artists and musicians are heard. And we stepped up our networking with other groups to in order to amplify our pressure. That includes Uyghurs, Mongolians, Chinese dissidents, Falun Gong, Burmese, Zimbabwean, Sudanese and North Korean causes and also neiche supporter groups such as the artistic, music, skating and tattooing communities!

We also campaigned on behalf of prominent political prisoners such as environmentalist Karma Samdrup, singer Tashi Dhondup, writer Shogdung, cadre Norzin Wangmo and film maker Dhondup Wangchen as well supporting Chinese dissident and Nobel Prize winner Liu Xiabao. We’ve been happy to see Tashi Dhondup and Shogdung released, and campaigns for other prisoners continue.

Two of the political prisoners arrested in 2010

2009
SFT UK marked 50 years of peaceful resistance in Tibet with the biggest Uprising Day rally for years at Trafalgar Square, London while Chinese government crackdowns against Tibetan protesters continued. Large scale protests in Ngaba and Ragya met with arrests and torture from the Chinese state, and SFT campaigned on behalf of all those still missing since the 2008 protests. Tragically, Lobsang Gyaltsen and Loyak were sentenced to death and later executed for their alleged role in protests, but this did not deter Tibetans from standing up to reject Chinese rule.

The 2009 5oth anniversary Uprising Day march and rally

SFT also began campaigning on environmental issues, with SFT UK joining the Stop Climate Chaos Coalition, marching at The Wave event and traveling to Copenhagen to advocate for the rights of Tibetan nomads and raise awareness of Tibet as the world’s Third Pole at the climate change conference.

2008
2008 saw the biggest uprising against Chinese rule in Tibet since 1959, as hundreds of separate protests took place across all three Tibetan regions, involving many thousands of Tibetans. SFT were instrumental in getting information about the crackdowns which followed into the international news media and campaigning to pressure China to release political prisoners and amplify the voices of Tibetans inside Tibet, calling for an end to Chinese rule.

SFT UK were key organisers of massive protests against the Olympic torch relay as Tibetans in Tibet asserted their nationality.

But 2008 was also a big year for SFT itself as we took centre stage at the Beijing Olympics in a series of daring non-violent direct actions which prevented the Chinese regime from using the games to convince the world that it is a ‘developed’ nation when it comes to human rights, and making sure that Tibet’s plight was on the international political agenda throughout the Olympics and beyond. SFT UK activists were right in the centre of this, with our board members and supporters making the front pages of papers across the world as they staged actions in Beijing.

2007
August 2007, One Year Countdown to the Beijing Games: One year before the start of the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Lhadon Tethong, SFT’s Executive Director traveled to Beijing to speak out against China’s occupation of Tibet. From her blog (www.BeijingWideOpen.org) she openly challenged the Chinese government’s Olympics propaganda and claims over Tibet.

On the eve of the one-year countdown celebrations a team of six SFT members unfurled a 450 square foot banner on the Great Wall of China reading “One World, One Dream: Free Tibet 2008.” Our on-site communications team was able to break through China’s “Great Fire Wall” and upload images of the action to the Internet in real time.

Click here to watch video of the action.

SFT Campaigned against increased religious restrictions: SFT mobilized our online action network to campaign for the release of Runggye Adak, a nomad father of 11 children sentenced to eight years in prison for publicly calling for the return of the Dalai Lama. In
October 2007, at the Dalai Lama’s Congressional Gold Medal Ceremony in DC, SFT distributed 5,000 postcards protesting China’s new law to control the recognition of reincarnated Buddhist teachers.

SFT holds Free Tibet Action Camp VIII in Dharamsala India, IX in San Diego, California, and, X in Dharamsala India.

2006
On July 1, 2006 the inauguration of the Gormo Lhasa Railway 3 Free Tibet Activists unfurled a banner over the Beijing railway station reading, “China’s Tibet Railway: Designed to Destroy.” Tibetans inside and outside Tibet oppose the Gormo Lhasa Railway on the grounds that it is a tool Beijing will use to overwhelm the Tibetan population, exploit Tibet’s resources, dilute Tibetan culture and devastate the Tibetan environment. Click here to see video of the dramatic action

SFT organized global protests to highlight the Nangpa la massacre. On September 30, 2006, 75 Tibetans, among them many children, and their two guides were crossing the Tibet-Nepal border to flee from persecution when the police opened fire on the group, killing Kelsang Namtso, a 17 year old nun. Kunsang Namgyal, a 23 year old man, was hit in the leg twice, and then taken away by the Chinese border police. For the first time this event was witnessed by European mountaineers and captured on video.Click here to see video of the Nangpa la massacre.

SFT holds Free Tibet! Action Camp VII in Dusseldorf, Germany.

2005
Tenzin Delek Rinpoche is saved but not free. After two years of advocacy and activism by SFT and thousands of people around the world, Chinese authorities commuted Tenzin Delek Rinpoche’s death sentence to a life in prison.

SFT begins a world wide campaign targeting the Canadian corporation Bombardier for supplying the Chinese government with specialized technology needed to build a rail link connecting Tibet with China. By partnering the Chinese government on the construction of the railway, Bombardier has made themselves partners in China’s occupation of Tibet.

SFT India became formally part of the SFT international Family. From a very humble beginning as a loose network of young activists aand students based in Dharamshala campaigning for Tibet’s Independence, SFT India has grown as nation-wide network of youth, campaigning for the fundamental rights of the Tibetan people.

Students for a Free Tibet turns ten! To mark this milestone, SFT celebrated the incredible achievements of all the young people worldwide who have made the Tibet movement a force to be reckoned with. The anniversary is bittersweet though, as it reminds all of us that Tibet remains occupied. So, in addition to celebrating, we are marking SFTs tenth birthday by setting in motion a plan to put ourselves out of business before another decade goes by. But no matter how long it takes, we will never give up. Tibet will be free.

2004
New Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao faces protestors on his first visit to the United States and Canada.  While speaking at Harvard University he is interrupted by an SFT member who asks him about Tibet.

SFT organizes an international day of action calling for the release of Tenzin Delek Rinpoche that targets nineteen Chinese embassies and consulates, including the consulate in Lagos,  Nigeria.

Phuntsok Nyidron, the last of the Drapchi 14 nuns still imprisoned, is released a year before the end of her sentence.

SFT holds 2nd SFT Canada conference in Toronto.

SFT holds 5th annual Free Tibet! Action Camp in New York.

2002-2003
Ngawang Choephel, the focus of one of SFT’s first political prisoner campaigns, is released nearly 12 years before the end of his sentence– arrested for documenting traditional Tibetan music and culture, Ngawang was the beneficiary of more letters of support from Congress than anyone previously, according to Chinese officials.

SFT organizes ‘Mobilization for Tibet’, a week of powerful demonstrations and civil disobedience in DC to draw attention to Tibet just prior to President Bush’s first-ever visit to China.

Nawang Sangdrol, longest-serving of the imprisoned ‘Drapchi 14’ nuns is released by the Chinese government under intense pressure from SFT and other Tibet Support Groups– she is later released to the United States.

Bowing to international pressure, China releases over a dozen high-profile Tibetan political prisoners within a year and a half.

Reacting to an execution of a Tibetan political prisoner, Lobsang Dhondup, SFT coordinates nonviolent direct actions at Chinese Consulates and Embassies in 18 cities, in 9 countries, on 4 continents and launches campaign to free Tenzin Delek Rinpoche.

3rd and 4th annual Free Tibet! Action Camps are held in Bloomington, IN and Woodstock, NY, respectively– training over 100 SFTers, the vast majority of them young Tibetans.

First-ever SFT Canada Conference held in Calgary.

SFT holds two SFT-Europe Conferences, bringing dozens of Tibetans and supporters from across Europe to London for training and strategizing.

SFT grows to over 650 chapters in 35 countries around the world, including Brazil, Nigeria, Poland, and Norway.

2000-2001
The 1st Free Tibet! Action Camp brings students from all over the world meet to learn the skills and strategies that will allow them to take a lead in the Tibetan freedom movement.

In coalition with others, SFT disrupts the IPO of PetroChina, the main operating subsidiary of China’s biggest oil company, taking $7 billion from the expected earnings of $10 billion.

In an unprecedented victory, a multi-faceted campaign led by SFT successfully blocks a World Bank project that would have financed the resettlement of 58,000 Chinese colonists into Tibet– actions inluded lobbying, fax and e-mail actions, a banner-hang on the Bank itself, strategic media outreach and a week-long encampment in front of the Bank.

SFT organizes demonstrations at the UN in response to the exclusion of the Dalai Lama from the Millenium Peace Summit and the visits of Li Peng and Jiang Zemin.

Sponsored by SFT and Rangzen Alliance, the “Rangzen Roadshow,” tours North America to educate Tibetan communities and students about economic action and strategy.

SFT launches a high-profile campaign opposing Beijing’s bid for the 2008 Olympics, including actions in Beijing and Moscow.

SFT files a shareholder resolution urging BP to divest from PetroChina. Shareholders representing over $5 billion in assets vote in favor of the resolution.

SFT grows to more than 600 chapters in over 30 countries.

100 students attend 2nd annual Free Tibet! Action Camp.

1998-1999
SFT grows to 450 chapters and becomes an independent organization.

SFT participates in the 3rd Tibetan Freedom Concert in Washington D.C.

SFT joins ICT and Milarepa Fund in a National Day of Action for Tibet which brings 15,000 people to the Capitol lawn.

In D.C., SFT organizes grassroots lobbying and innovative direct action to keep attention on Tibet as President Clinton leaves for historic summit in China.

Across North America, SFTers organize high-profile demonstrations during the visits of Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji and President Jiang Zemin.

SFT participates in the 2nd Tibetan Freedom Concert in New York City.

SFT takes the lead in a campaign to stop World Bank China-Tibet project.

Hundreds of SFTers gather in Seattle to protest China’s entry into the WTO, joining 50,000 people in successfully derailing WTO Ministerial in historic upset for corporate globalization.

1996-1997
SFT participates in the first Tibetan Freedom Concert in San Francisco, which exposes over 100,000 people to the Tibetan cause

With the Milarepa Fund and ICT, SFT joins a month-long Tibetan Freedom Tour to raise awareness and provide training to students across the U.S.

SFT and Milarepa Fund’s high-profile boycott of Holiday Inn and parent company Bass PLC ends in a campaign victory when Holiday Inn ends its’ partnership with the Chinese Government.

SFT holds 2nd and 3rd annual National Conference, at Brown University and University of Wisconsin, respectively.

SFT grows to over 250 chapters, and expands internationally to Europe, Asia and South America.

1994-1995
SFT formed in August of 1994 as a project of U.S. Tibet Committee and the International Campaign for Tibet (ICT)

75 SFT chapters quickly spring up across the country, doubling to nearly 150 within two years.

SFT arranges the first student meeting with His Holiness the Dalai Lama at Harvard University.

Scores of students gather for the 1st annual SFT National Conference at Oberlin University.