http://www.alternet.org/rights/85353/
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The Case For Tibet
By Bill Weinberg, AlterNet. Posted May 14, 2008.
Indigenous people around the world see in the struggle for Tibet their
own struggles for recovery of land and autonomy. We must not remain
silent. Tools
With the crisis in Tibet, the left in the U.S. finds itself once again
at risk of losing precious moral credibility with the American people
by apologizing for atrocities. If "Free Tibet" has become an
unthinking bandwagon for many, so too has a kneejerk reaction from
sectors of the radical left against the Tibetan struggle.
Over the past two months since the March 10th uprising, the Chinese
security forces have carried out sweeps and "disappearances," occupied
monasteries and villages, and opened fire on unarmed protesters. When
such actions are carried out by U.S. allies such as Israel or Colombia
-- or in occupied Iraq and Afghanistan -- we don't have to ask
ourselves who's side we are on. Like the Palestinians, the Tibetans
have been pushed into exile, denied self-government in their homeland,
and overwhelmed with settlers sent by the occupying power. We have a
greater responsibility of solidarity to the Palestinians, because our
government funds their oppression. But the fact that U.S. imperialism
is attempting to exploit their struggle does not mean we have no
responsibilities to the Tibetans.
Tibet will especially need solidarity from anti-imperialists in the
West if it is to avoid becoming a pawn in the Great Game for control
of Asia. The U.S. exploits the Tibetan movement for moral leverage
against China (which has as its ultimate aims market penetration and
military domestication, not Tibetan freedom), but is not going to risk
a complete break with Beijing by sup****ting Tibet to the ultimate
consequences. The CIA backed a small Tibetan insurgency in the '50s --
then did nothing as it was brutally crushed. The worst of the
repression was in 1956 -- the same year the Hungarian workers learned
a similarly bitter lesson. The Iraqi Kurds would also learn it in the
aftermath of Desert Storm.
Today, the National Endowment for Democracy provides funds for Tibetan
human-rights groups in exile, and the Dalai Lama has met with Bush and
received the Congressional Medal of Honor. It pains us to see the
Dalai Lama cozying up to Wa****ngton -- just as it should pain us to
see Evo Morales and Hugo Ch=E1vez cozying up to Beijing. However, there
are reasons behind such alliances. Bolivia and Venezuela need a non-
U.S. market for their hydrocarbons if they are to break free of the
U.S. orbit. The Tibetans perceive that they need powerful allies if
they are to recover their homeland and right of self-determination.
Leftist betrayal of the Tibetan struggle will only entrench whatever
illusions the Tibetan exile leader****p harbor about U.S. intentions.
The Dalai Lama is not demanding independence for Tibet. He wants
autonomy for Tibet within a unified People's Republic of China. His
demand is essentially the same as that of the Zapatistas, who demand
local Maya autonomy within Mexico. He calls for coexistence with Han
Chinese. Hardliners in the exile community in India -- especially in
the Tibetan Youth Congress -- are rapidly losing patience with such
tolerant positions, as Beijing remains intransigent. Again, a betrayal
of Tibetan solidarity by progressives in the West will only validate
the hardline stance.
We must also realize that the U.S.-China tensions are about imperial
rivalry only (and especially the scramble for Africa's oil) -- not
ideology. China is not communist in anything other than name. Some of
the most savage capitalism on earth prevails in the so-called
"People's Republic." The lands of peasants are expropriated in sleazy
deals for industrial projects and the vulgar mansions of the nouveau
riche -- leading to a wave of harsh repression against peasant
communities over the past few years. Especially in the industrial
heartland around Fujian, peasants have taken up farm implements
against police in militant protests over the enclosure and pollution
of their village lands. The state has struck back with sweeps,
"disappearances" and programs of forced sterilization -- the same
tactics U.S. client states use in Latin America. In "illegal"
factories -- which do not exist on paper but are encouraged by corrupt
authorities -- workers don't even have the minimum social security or
wages, and labor in virtual servitude. Shantytowns have sprung up
around the industrial cities of the northeast. The fruits of this
hyper-exploitation are sold to U.S. consumers at WalMart. ... (cont)
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