The Protests in Tibet and the Discontent Below

by Li Onesto
Starting March 14, days of protests and rebellion broke out in Tibet against the reactionary Chinese government. It is difficult to get reliable news about these developments because most reports are from the Chinese government or unverified individual accounts. But this appears to be the biggest outbreak of anti-government protests in Tibet in 20 years.
This conflict in Tibet is very complex, involving different class forces and interests and different political forces, including religious reactionary groups tied to U.S. imperialism.
On the one hand this struggle is about the national oppression of the Tibetan people by a regime that calls itself “socialist” and “communist”—which it is NOT. The Chinese government is reactionary and capitalist. On the other hand, this struggle is taking place against a bigger international backdrop. The United States is aggressively setting out to extend and tighten the global dominance of U.S. imperialism. And Tibet is in a geostrategically important region of the world where there are big stakes for the U.S. in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and India. The U.S. has a long history of backing reactionary forces in Tibet – the CIA has worked with and directly supported the Dalai Lama. And today, sections of the U.S. ruling class are championing the Dalai Lama and using his movement to try and pressure, destabilize, and even tear China apart because they consider it a long-term strategic, economic, political, and military rival to U.S. global power. Attempts by U.S. imperialism to interfere in Tibet must be opposed.
Several reports say things started when hundreds of Buddhist monks began marching from the Drepung Loseling Monastery to the city center in the capital city of Lhasa. They were stopped by the police, and 50 to 60 monks were arrested. Then a sit-down strike was joined by additional monks from Drepung.
The next day, on Saturday morning, in a busy market area, monks and other ethnic Tibetans continued to protest, and violent clashes broke out with Chinese security forces. According to eyewitness accounts and video footage, angry Tibetans burned cars and military vehicles and attacked government buildings and Han Chinese-owned shops. By nightfall, the authorities had clamped down, imposing a curfew, and military police officers were blocking city streets.
Protests continued for several days, with thousands of Tibetans clashing with riot police. And there were reports of demonstrations by Tibetans living in other parts of China and in India. While reports of the number of casualties are mostly unreliable, it seems pretty clear that there have been deaths among protesters, shopkeepers and security forces. On March 24, 11 days after the first protest broke out, the New York Times reported that Lhasa was occupied by thousands of paramilitary police officers and army troops of the Chinese central government.
Three Stages in Modern History of Tibet
The Tibetan people are an ethnic minority in China that is oppressed by the capitalist system in China—and this oppression has greatly intensified in recent years. To understand this, it is first of all important to understand that the history of Tibet (officially designated as the Tibetan Autonomous Region) is NOT, as most mainstream news reports would have us believe, one unbroken history where the Tibetan people have faced the same government since 1949.
There are basically three distinct stages in the modern history of Tibet. Before 1949 Tibet was not, as is sometimes portrayed, a Shangri-la of harmony and peace. It was a brutal theocracy where Buddhist doctrine reinforced class order and social oppression. From 1951-1976, with the victory of the Chinese communist revolution, Tibet became part of the revolutionary process of building socialism with sweeping and liberating economic and social changes. Then since 1976, with the restoration of capitalism in China, the Tibetan people have been subjected to exploitation, subjugation as a people, and suppression of their culture and fast-paced capitalist development that threatens the environment. (See accompanying article, “Tibet: From Brutal Theocracy to Socialist Liberation to Capitalist Nightmare.”)
What Is the Discontent About? ………