Club Jacobin

Reminder that the US has never acted in the interests of the Tibetan people, let alone the whole Chinese people. When the empire is done with its puppets, it cuts their strings.

Anonymous asked: This might be up your alley--A Tibetan Revolutionary: The Political Life and Times of Bapa Phuntso Wangye.

Ok the timing of this ask is really funny because although I read this book some years ago I actually bought my own copy just about fifteen minutes before this was sent. So, anonymous friend, if you were snooping on me in Logos it would have been easier to just say hi!

ANYWAY — A Tibetan Revolutionary is an outstanding book that I strongly recommend to anyone who wants to find out more about the recent history of Tibet. The subject of the book, Bapa Phüntso Wangye (aka Phünwang) was born in a Tibetan community in Chinese-administered territory in the 1920s. He became a revolutionary and organized guerrilla war, founded the Tibetan Communist Party, and tried to form alliances with progressive young aristocrats in the old society — all before the Chinese “invasion” of Tibet. After that he was for a long time one of the main Tibetan figures in the CCP (after the TCP merged with the CCP); spent almost twenty years in torturous imprisonment around the time of the Cultural Revolution; and after release and rehabilitation continued to be active fighting for communism and Tibetan liberation inside the CCP.

I first read this book several years back when my growing interest in Maoism and the Chinese revolution came up against the received wisdom that I had grown up with about the cruelty of Chinese occupation in Tibet and how we need to free the poor Tibetans etc. I set out to read as much as I could about recent Tibetan history and this was one of the most important books for me. Even though Phünwang himself is just one person and the TCP and his other efforts were relatively marginal, this book help me grapple with the reality of Tibet as a class society and think about the interests of the different sectors of Tibetan society. You come to understand why young and perceptive Tibetans gravitated towards communism, and why the most advanced representatives of the Tibetan masses joined together with the CCP and had no interest in defending the nobles of their own ethnicity against a foreign “invasion” or in helping the Lamaist uprising or subversion in later years. And while Phünwang is unstinting in criticism of the CCP practice — e.g. decrying Han chauvinism and expressing anguish that the Party has not done more to eliminate it — his continued commitment to fighting for liberation within the context of the PRC carries a lot of weight.

So yes tl;dr this is a great book and folks should read it. There’s also a decent review here for some further information.

Phünwang (right) in Sichuan; to his left are Chen Yi, Zhou Enlai, the Dalai Lama and some other dudes.

I wholeheartedly support Tibetan protests against the Chinese government.

Just as I support the incredibly numerous protests of Han Chinese which take place against that same government every year. (The current count for mass protests is around 180,000 every year, and rising!)

Tibetans and Han Chinese are different nationalities but share an interest in a strong and united revolutionary socialist China.

Yes to a new socialist revolution in China!

No to the imperialist dismemberment of the political unity forged between the peoples of China!

After sixty years of close union with China, the Tibetan population has grown rapidly (in part because Tibetans and other national minorities, unlike Han Chinese, are not subject to the one-child policy) and Tibetan life expectancy has nearly doubled. Ethnic Tibetans make up about 90% of the population of the TAR and 60-70% of the provincial government officials; and about 90% of Tibetans believe that they are better off than their parents were. All in all it doesn’t sound like any kind of genocide I’ve ever heard of before.

(Source: followthemonk)

First draft of a translation of this article by Domenico Losurdo. A good introduction to the topic although of course a short piece like this can only scratch the surface. Comments on the translation welcome. Thanks again to citoyenrebelle for pointing out Losurdo’s writings on Tibet.

The Dalai Lama in Tibet, 1950

Who is the Dalai Lama? And why does so much of the Italian left tend to accept his “sanctification” and not see his reactionary essence?

Celebrated and transfigured by Hollywood filmmaking, the Dalai Lama undoubtedly continues to enjoy a wide popularity: his last trip to Italy concluded with a solemn group photo with leaders of the parties of the center-left, who wanted to display their esteem or their reverence for the champion of the struggle for “liberation of the Tibetan people.”

Domenico Losurdo, “China, Tibet and the Dalai Lama.” Finally working on a translation of this article. The period described here is the 1940s btw.

becausetheyregoingtobesadlater asked: I saw your update/post about Tibet. I understand (as many do) that the serfdom in Tibet was wrong, cruel, and in no way how a society should be run. And while they may be 'better off' I think you should look at some of those repercussions that the 'cultural (r)evolution' had on the ecology, economy, and health of Tibet.

Thanks for the ask! And thank you for at least acknowledging the awful inhumanity of the traditional Tibetan system headed by the Dalai Lama; unfortunately that important aspect is all too often left out of these conversations. A couple quick points in response follow.

I’d like to emphasize again that the basic issue for me around Tibet is self-determination, i.e. what the Tibetan peoples themselves want. (That is a bit of a simplistic definition of self-determination; more detail here and here.)

So although Tibetan life expectancy has nearly doubled over the last sixty years; the population has grown rapidly and ethnic Tibetans have remained 90% of the population of the TAR (in part because Tibetans and other national minorities, unlike Han Chinese, are not subject to the one-child policy); and about 90% of Tibetans believe that they are better off than their parents were — notwithstanding all of those points, I would still support a struggle for independence if the Tibetan nation itself should chose that course.

However, after much searching I have been unable to find any evidence that such ideas have any currency at all among Tibetans. I’m not aware of polls or studies conducted with the official imprimatur of the Chinese government on this question (and I’m sure they would be rejected anyway by Free Tibet supporters). But it’s remarkable that a poll conducted in Tibet in secret by the “Tibetan Government in Exile” (i.e. the clique gathered around the Dalai Lama) found less than 30% support for independence. And of course even the Dalai Lama himself does not support independence for Tibet.

It’s very interesting to note that support for Tibetan independence in the US is around 75% — that is, support for Tibetan independence is about two and a half times higher than in Tibet itself! (At least assuming we believe the findings of the TGIE.) I would respectfully submit that people who are drawn to the cause of Free Tibet think about why that position seems to resonate so much more strongly with people who have no personal tie to Tibet and no stake in the outcome than it does with the people for whom Tibet’s future matters the most.

You didn’t include any links or references to read more about the effects that revolution and union with China have on the “ecology, economy, and health of Tibet” so I can only say that I have tried to look at those to the best of my ability so far. If you do want to follow up with any readings or sources of information that you think are worth checking out, I’ll do my best to give them a look. Let me also suggest that if you haven’t read Mike Ely’s excellent articles entitled “The True Story of Maoist Revolution in Tibet,” you ought to give them a careful read.

citoyenrebelle:

clubjacobin:

Domenico Losurdo sul Dalai Lama e sul Tibet lamaista (in Italian, obvz)

(Thanks citoyenrebelle for mentioning Losurdo as an author worth checking out on Tibet. Lots of great stuff out there that doesn’t seem to have been translated into or widely circulated in English.)

Wish my knowledge of Italian wasn’t only basics learned within a 3-month long class years ago >_> There are so many awesome radical/marxist Italian philosophers on my list of Academics I Still Want To Believe In.

Hopefully for me though, many of his things have been translated to French. Like this awesome article! La Chine, le Tibet et le Dalaï Lama - I think it might have been the one I was referring to. He may have written more, but this one is pretty complete.

Awesome. If I get enough done on my actual work today, I’ll try to translate that article tonight for the benefit of any Anglophones out there.

Meanwhile, English speakers can enjoy Mike Ely’s excellent piece “The True Story of Maoist Revolution in Tibet.”

(via atrocementheatral)

Domenico Losurdo sul Dalai Lama e sul Tibet lamaista (in Italian, obvz)

(Thanks citoyenrebelle for mentioning Losurdo as an author worth checking out on Tibet. Lots of great stuff out there that doesn’t seem to have been translated into or widely circulated in English.)

citoyenrebelle:

clubjacobin:

Just had another debate with “Free Tibet” ppl that went something like this:

Me: providing historical facts, studies, pictures, and trying to draw out meaning and context in terms like “independence,” “freedom” and “occupation.”

Them: deep outrage and burning anger that anyone can oppose Tibetan independence; loaded rhetorical questions. When pressed to respond to studies provided, response is awkward silence and “I’m too busy,” “I don’t have time for this conversation.”

So, pretty much like every other time I’ve tried to talk about Tibet with these people.

Did you tell them the adoration of Tibet was rooted in the nazi search for Aryans? And that Heinrich Harrer was a SS?

The person who made me discover the horrors of pre-communist Tibet was Domenico Losurdo. I was on my fucking ass.

I don’t understand how anyone can still look at the Dalai Lama without repulsion and horror after knowing what he’s directly responsible of as the leader of that feudal theocracy.

And don’t give me the “but it’s not his fauuuultttt he was just put theeerreeee”. I’ve heard enough of that bullshit with Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette.

Hear hear!

Really though your comparison with the French Revolution is so well-taken here.

The Western mythology around Tibet relies really heavily on a totally ahistorical (and pretty racist/Orientalist) view of pre-1951 Tibet as a harmonious and pious Buddhist society, whose tranquility was rudely interrupted by Chinese tanks which rolled in because the Chinese are big meanies or something.

But when we see that there are really clear analogies between social processes that took place in Tibet after 1951 and those in other places that we recognize as revolutionary contexts, we are forced to reckon with the fact that Tibetans are actual full human beings like we are; and Tibetan society — like every other human society — involved social structures, oppressive institutions and ideologies, and social classes and class struggle.

When we see Tibetan serfs burning the deeds which tied them to the estate of a feudal lord, and recognize that we would find identical scenes taking place across France in 1789, we are confronted with the question of why one of those examples is a cornerstone of historical progress and the other one is a sad scene of imperialism and Communist fanaticism.

It seems like most people who come up against this difficulty just shy away from it and don’t lose any sleep over the lack of political consistency. In this most corrupt of imperialist countries, it’s no surprise that even “radicals” (as my interlocutors were) aren’t troubled enough by this to question what they’ve come to take for granted. Like the old sectarian joke about Trotskyists, these radicals would support revolution anywhere except where it’s actually happening. They do not have the patience or seriousness to engage with actual revolution in its violent, vibrant, just and unjust, terrifying and liberating realities.

(It is always nice to find some people who are not of that mold however! I never thought that I’d say tumblr discussions could be a breath of fresh air, but there’s where things are in my world today.)

(via atrocementheatral)