Students’ Action Camp Update

Here is the french team from the European Free Tibet ! Action Camp

A short sharing of our witnesses before we go to the bonfire.

During this week we learned how to create and empower a chapter so that we can really create a strong network of activists in France.

We are glad to meet activists and tibetan personalities, who share so much about their experiences. It inspires us a lot.

And now we are in a hurry to act in our country and make the chinese government really upset!!! ( as we actually started to do last year! )

Visit our site in : www.tibetlibre.org

Hey Action Camp!

Guest post authored by FT!AC VII participant Pema Yoko from the UK.

The path the Tibetan government has ruled is a non-violent one, so therefore we must seek knowledge and try to practice these, however, slow or frustrating it can be. His Holiness the Dalai Lama, stresses the importance of education, as this is the key for a better future.What is so inspiring about Students for a Free Tibet is the interaction with the community and the supporters and the stress of educating oneself with these training camps. SFT is one of a kind and it is definitely something that is much needed in the Tibetan Community, especially with the use of these camps.

The only disappointing aspect of this experience is not seeing enough Tibetans, and if you are a Tibetan from Europe reading this, where were you, man?! Coz, for real, you will gain so much for yourself and for your community, you can pass down so much knowledge to others. The camp is filled with various work shops, such as nonviolent action, action planning, scouting, dealing with media, and within in these you learn about history of other nations as well as your own, other political activists and so on. I think also you can learn a bit of your culture as SFT invite people like, Techung (Tibetan singer), they provide video and slide installations showing Tibetan movement all over the world, which is very inspiring as a Tibetan.

Although I was only at the camp for 2 nights, I believe it works, it is giving us an opportunity to take control and lead, to be good speakers, like Lhadon, Tendor, and Thupten and I think if we can do that, then I believe Tibet has better chance than ever.

Although I am not officially a member of SFT, I very much support it. In London we have set up a new group called “Tibetan Youth in UK�, we are voluntary group supporting the Tibetan Issue and the Tibetans in the UK, since we have started we have been working closely with SFT-UK. They have been a big help to us, with guidance and support. This is highly important for organizations or groups and communities around the world, coz at the end of the day we all work hard and strive for the same thing, so we should have harmony amongst each other and work together for a FREE TIBET!!

….�ya get me�?!

Action Camp Photos

You can see some photos on the right, but more Free Tibet! Action Camp photos on my flickr feed. Enjoy!

Action! Action! Action Camp!

I’ve been in Germany for SFT’s Free Tibet! Action Camp VII since Friday morning and now is the first time I’m having a moment where I can sit down and reflect about all that’s going on around me.

As I said, I arrived with five other staff and volunteers from New York Friday morning. We spent the weekend setting up the Pauenhof Center for the start of Action Camp. It’s our second year here in Sonsbeck (about 40 minutes away from Dusseldorf), so we know the area well, which has made shopping, airport runs, and the tracking down of supplies much easier. That said, it takes a tremendous amount of work to put on our camps and the staff and volunteers have been pulling 18-20 hour days the last few days and are looking forward to another week of more of the same!

Right now the first day’s trainings are coming to a close. Most of our students arrived last night. It’s great for me to see many familiar faces from last year’s camp. This year our returning students are either in our advanced track “Training for Trainers” or working as volunteers. We’re also lucky to be joined by even more fantastic climbing trainers from here in Germany – activists who have a a true wealth of knowledge about direct action skills, tactics, and strategies. Throw in the old SFT stand-bys and our new students are in for the week of a lifetime.
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SFT UK Conference in London

Reporting from Gatwick Airport, London (actually way south of London)

One thing I know for sure is that everyone who participated in this weekend’s SFT UK (and Tibetan Youth UK) conference is sound asleep and will not wake up in time to go to class or work. Because they’re exhausted – not tired (it’s different) – after the full-power, high-steam workshops, trainings, and discussions that took place at the School of Oriental & International Studies (SOAS).
With a few dozen participants from eleven universities in the UK and many Tibetans from the local London community and the representatives of the newly formed Tibetan Youth UK (led by the charismatic young leader Karma), the conference was bound to be an outstanding success. It was clear that the SFT UK board had put countless hours into preparing this conference – and getting as many students as possible from around UK to take the train or bus – I mean, coach – to London and be part of a unique learning experience where young Tibet activists and Tibetans got together to inspire each other and learn form each other.
Well, I think I just heard my flight announcement. Signing off with big cheers to all SFT UK team for the hard work and bulldogged determination!

Six Years With Tibet

It was very fitting for me to wrap up our North American Training Conference in Santa Barbara on Martin Luther King Day. Six years ago, on MLK Day, I got involved with Students for a Free Tibet and the Tibet movement after seeing Lhadon Tethong, then Programs Coordinator, speak at my high school. I went to high school in New Hampshire which does not celebrate MLK Day as a holiday at the time. Fortunately for me, my school devoted the day to a series of workshops on racial equality, women’s rights, sexual harassment, Native American rights, and in January of 2000, Tibetan history.

I had been loosely aware of Tibet’s plight before I saw Lhadon talk. I’d seen the various Hollywood movies and I’d wanted to go to the Freedom Concerts, being a big fan of Rage Against the Machine and the Beastie Boys. My father was a supporter of ICT and I’d even worn a Rangzen bracelet for a while that ICT had sent out with a mailing. But I’d never been involved in SFT or gone to an SFT meeting.

Lhadon spoke about China’s brutal and unprovoked invasion of Tibet and how the Dalai Lama eventually fled into exile. She spoke about the horrendous repression that has occurred inside Tibet and the overwhelming punishments that met the smallest actions of Tibetan resistance. I heard about the complete lack of freedom of religion, speech, assembly, movement, employment, and education. Lhadon spoke about what it was like as a young Tibetan growing up in exile and how she longed to return to a free Tibet. If you’ve seen Lhadon Tethong speak about Tibet, you know how great a speaker she is and how strong her convictions are.

Maybe it was that I hadn’t had the opportunity to think about Tibet in an full and authentic way before. Maybe I just was ready to give myself to a worthy cause — despite dabbling in work with environmental protection, the homeless, and anti-death penalty campaigning, I’d never found myself fully invested in a movement. Maybe it was hearing an impassioned, educated, clear call for help for the Tibetan people by a Tibetan (and not, say Richard Gere or Steven Seagal). Whatever the case, I was convinced.

I immediately got involved in my high school’s SFT chapter and before I new it I was participating in a relay hunger fast, selling momos to fundraise for SFT, interning at SFT’s office in New York, and camping out outside the World Bank. I found it easy to devote myself to a cause that I saw as true and just and right. The Tibetan people in exile and inside Tibet needed help amplifying their voice for independence. I would do what I could to make it possible.

Six years later I’m working for SFT full-time. It’s kinda shocking to realize that it’s been six years, considering how much of a different place I find myself in now than when I first became involved. I’ve been connected to SFT for a much shorter time than my coworkers and other board members, but I think that speaks to the power Tibet has as a moral issue and the way Tibetan independence resonates with Westerners. Not many SFTers end up walking away from SFT and I’m no different — just think, two former staff members voluntarily drove twelve hours to help out at our Santa Barbara conference.

I’m working for SFT because I believe Tibet will be free and I can see that coming true in the next six years. I don’t think that’s a radical statement or overly optimistic, but one that we can make true by the actions we take today. I’m working for Tibet because I believe that every nation has a right to choose their own government, practice their own religion, say or sing whatever they want, and meet in public to express their views. I believe people have a right NOT to be silenced, NOT to have their religious beliefs banned or limited, NOT to be treated as second class citizens, and NOT to be imprisoned for voicing their opposition to a harsh military dictatorship. These are not extreme positions to hold, but ones steeped in democracy and respect for the idea of the rule of law.

Tibet will be free and I believe that change will come by demanding the rights Tibetans, like all other people, deserve. Independence and freedom are only radical ideas when you live in a dictatorship. Those outside of China’s totalitarian communist state have a moral obligation to do what we can to support the Tibetan people in their search for freedom and independence. I’m happy I’ve spent so much time over the last six years working with the Tibetan independence movement and SFT in particular. Hopefully in another six years you will find me blogging from a cyber cafe in a free Lhasa.

Bhod rangzen! Free Tibet!

In solidarity,
Matt