Anyone with a serious interest in the working class of Tibet as opposed to the ruling elite in exile would find this piece interesting.

 http://www.michaelparenti.org/Tibet.html

To the man who described the pro-Tibet protests as "bullshit", it's about national self-determination, fool. Nobody sane argues that pre-invasion Tibet was a shangri-la (the Dalai Lama laments the feudalism of the time in this:  http://www.johannhari.com/archive/article.php?id=399) and anyway, nobody sane could argue that pre-invasion Iraq was Nirvana, yet the left still and should still support their right to self-determination. Your pro-China argument is obviously a hangover from some sort of Maoism, because Marx loved those aggressive imperialist ventures didn't he? oh, and Free Tibet.

A man? You quite clearly presume too much and where did I say 'bullshit'?

And quite clearly your readiness to taint anyone with an opinion on this as Maoist or supporters of the dispicable Chinese regime says a lot about you and your pathetic support of a ruling elite.

Go suck on one.

Sorry for misquoting you and so on. Still, they have a right to self-determination. Iraq, after the occupation, provided it remains the same state as it is today, will be a theocracy. Does that mean we shouldn't criticise the occupation? I really don't catch your drift.

Maybe the UK left didn't become involved in the Free Tibet protests (which also involved Taiwanese protesters, and Fulun Gong meditators) for the same reason that they also seem to ignore the Buma Campaign and the pro-democracy movement in Zimbabwe. Many on the UK left are stuck into a white middle-class groove which fails to recognise many Human Rights and pro-democracy campaigns as they don't fit into their political mindset. The only human rights issues that the UK left seems to recognise are the South American poor, Palestine and Guantanamo Bay (important though they are).
If the anti-capitalist movement were brave enough to include more human rights issues into its campaigns and activisms they might just see a huge new interest in their activities.
Another example would be Europe's last dictatorship, Belarus. What does the UK activist left have to say about that appalling regime? Nothing. If the anti-capitalist left took the bull by the horns they could help bring about a democratic revolution in Belarus which didn't lead to rampant neo-liberalism.
Finally what about Chechnya? Surely Chechnya is Russia's Palestine. Why were there no protests by the UK left when President Putin (the butcher of Grozny) last visited?
Please can the left wake up to Human Rights. Incidentally why is there not a Human Right/Civil Liberties Topic on this site (only a 'Repression' category)?

Good stuff games. you basically said what i wanted to say, without the filter of drink/anger. As an ex-buddist/buddhist, i have an emotional attachment to the issue, but that doesn't stop me being right in this instance.

Many of us here are not of the 'activist left' and are not interested in your national liberation tosh to return ruling juntas to their former glory, but rather give the working class on this planet what is right fully there's.....EVERYTHING!

Save me your rubbish about the 'middle class' left! How many working class Buddhists are levitating around the UK??? Fuck all, you're all as middle-class as they come.

Give us the rope someone....

Human Rights in China isn't just about national liberation, important though that is. China is now a capitalist dictatorship masquerading as a Communist state. It brutally represses both the rural and urban poor as firmly as any 1970's South American dictatorship. It is also now one of the greatest polluters on the planet.

Being a supporter of the Tibetan cause shouldn't have to be so political. What it comes down to is each Tibetan having basic civil liberties. Currently there is no freedom of speech, press or assembly in Tibet, and the Tibetans are treated as second class citizens. They are not permitted to own a Tibetan flag or a picture of the Dalai Lama.
I have been to Tibet and personally know Tibetans now living in exile. Some of these are here because they have fled Tibet over the Himalayas, and some grew up in Nepal or India, the children of exiled parents. They can testify to the abuses that the authorites inflict on Tibetans still inside the country. For example, I have met 2 Tibetan nuns, called Namdrol Llamo and Gyantsen Dolkar, who were both imprisoned for taking part in demonstrations against the government, and then had their sentences extended for the crime of singing freedom songs when in prison. They each served 12 years in total, in a prison in Lhasa, but are now living in Switzerland. They talked of torture with electric batons and sexual abuse, staring at the ground in shame as they did so.
We should use the freedom we are granted in the west to help more people like these two women, and the boy Panchen Lama, imprisoned when he was only 5 years old, rather than bickering about who is/isnt middle class.
Trying to help Tibetans fight for their own people and country shouldn't be anti-chinese or tied up in religion. This should have been clear in the protests of November, since Tibet supporters stood side by side with chinese Falun Gong practitioners and Taiwanese supporters.

For a Free Tibet.