A bill co-authored by a UC Berkeley doctoral student in response to an unprecedented wave of self-immolations in Tibet has been passed into law by Berkeley City Council.
The resolution — which passed unanimously at the Jan. 31 City Council meeting — calls the immolations a reflection of the Chinese government’s repression of the Tibetan people. The resolution also calls for the Obama administration to insist that China work toward a resolution to affirm Tibetans’ right to social equality.
“I think this is very important,” said Tenzin Paldron, the rhetoric graduate student who co-authored the bill. “It has a very symbolic significance of the revolution that is taking place.”
Seventeen individuals have set themselves on fire in Tibet since February 2009 as a symbol of the country’s continued fight for independence from China, according to a Feb. 2 press release about the resolution.
A UC Berkeley campus group — a chapter of Students for a Free Tibet — has worked to raise awareness about the issues surrounding Tibet by hosting a Jan. 27 panel on campus, which featured leaders of the Tibetan freedom movement speaking about self-immolations and the political complexity surrounding the situation.
Yangchen Lhamo Chagzoetsang, a UC Berkeley School of Law student and member of the student group, helped organize the panel event and subsequently spoke in support of the bill at the City Council meeting.
“The Berkeley community is so diverse and interested in cultures that we’re hoping to draw in those who have a natural as well as a political interest in Tibet,” she said. “Our members are so proud of the resolution passing, and we’re hoping it carries to other cities.”
The group’s activism and address at the meeting contributed to the passing of the resolution, according to Noah Sochet, the bill’s co-author and city peace and justice commissioner.
“Students on campus are becoming more and more trained and more and more ready to do wider activism like this resolution,” Sochet said.
Paldron said he is trying to build coalitions between Tibetan and Chinese-American communities in the U.S. and thinks the bill will help those communities work toward resolving conflicts.
Copies of the adopted resolution will be sent by the city to numerous state senators and national agencies, including the Consulate General of the People’s Republic of China in San Francisco.
“We’re hopeful that the folks we send it to will shed light on the issue and guide the policy that decision-makers make moving forward,” Sochet said.
The resolution attributes the increasing number of self-immolations to strict security measures enforced by the Chinese government in particular areas of Tibet and Tibetan-inhabited regions in China, citing a report about sharp spikes in public security spending for those regions.
“People within Tibet and China are frustrated because of the amount of security in that region, which has more than tripled, especially in the monasteries,” Paldron said.
He added that he and Sochet had to be careful about the language of the bill because of the situation’s complexity and to avoid making generalizations about the people in Tibet.
“We don’t want to encourage this sort of behavior and this deeply personal act,” Paldron said. “But, when people commit such acts, you have to stop and listen and observe.”
Afsana Afzal covers academics and administration.
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I support 100% and thanks to all who contributed in this great cause
The old Tibet was Shangrila for some and was far from Shangrila for many. It’s all relative. The slavery part is mostly Chineses communist propaganda. When I was a young boy in the 50s, the Chinese communists showed us propaganda films about slavery, etc. in China prior to the communists’ take over, and needless to say about their non-stop evils of the western imperilist and demonizing the capitalist forces and so on. Today they are all smiles with the capitists. Today there are too many slave laborers sequestered in various factories in China. CNN’s latest report is the slave laborers in IPad’s factory in Sechuan. Is China a true communist state today? It’s your call.
The western nations often go about their businesses and other affairs by book, but China mints by hook or crook. No wonder they have a surplus. Their constitution is a farse. Most don’t feel safe in China despite its some relaxation cause many of its affluent people immigrate to the west according to CCTV. No wonder San Marino, a posh enclave in southern California is the only city in the whole of U.S.,where the property value has not fallen after the 2008 economic meltdown; because the rich Chinese buy properties there paying in cash. Just like that. I drove by there and loved the place but couldn’t afford it. Hah hah.
Though our Tibet was poor nobody starved there prior to the communist take over but we were and are rich spiritually thanks to various teachings, etc. During the great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution periods about seventy million people perished in China due to staravation and brutal force. Though we were a poor nation we had never asked for any foreign aid in our two thousand year history; not a grain of barley. I’m by no means a devout Buddhist but our people were and are in equanimity with our monks and gurus and above all H.H. the Dalai Lama.
My contention is China’s lethal treament of our people. Today Tibetans are third class citizens in our own country — the second class being the Chinese migrant workers from the hinterlands. Out folks are being butchered with batons, bayonets and bullets. Where as, in China proper agitators are quelled with tear gas. Our helpless folkss face the barrel of their guns.
In short, I welcome the passage of the bill and I tip my hat to those who have endeavored in the process. I’m just recovering from the 49er’s loss. The bottom line is IMPERMANANCE.
Ajo Che
I applaud Tenzin Paldron for taking the initiative and co-authoring this bill. I thank the City of Berkeley for passing the bill.
Respecting life and taking actions to protect life makes this country great.
To the one who called Tibetans serfs and serf rulers, what history are you familiar where the serfs are willing to sacrifice their lives to have their ruler back?
You seem to know so little and have even lesser imagination.
Uhh, sorry guys, but China couldn’t care less about what happens in Berkeley.
And still no similar resolution against the occupation of Palestine.
Why?
One of the organizers, Noah Sochet, was behind the BDS campaign that successfully had the Olympia Food Coop boycott (the first successful grocery boycott) of Israeli products. Both of these authors of this resolution support the struggle against the occupation of Israel.
Doing specific action to support Tibet does not take away support from Palestine.
When I wrote occupation of Israel I meant Palestine.
Noah Sochet? Another self-hating asshole traitor, I see. When they came to take Jews away to the camps, the self-hating ones weren’t spared.
why?no guts because they need zionist money for campaign contributions.
Maybe because the Palestinians bring on most of their own problems themselves?
This resolution is the way to produce local and global change. Our city government is standing with the people of Tibet! Amazing! Free Tibet!!!!
Wow, this is going to have such an impact on international affairs. Did my taxes pay for this?
Resolution is here
http://www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/uploadedFiles/Clerk/Level_3_-_City_Council/2012/01Jan/2012-01-31_Item_10_Recognizing_the_Sacrifice_by_Tibetans.pdf
Even as a vociferous anti-communist, I say this is idiotic. The Tibetians, prior to the Chinese invasion, were ruled by a theocratic regime of lamas that kept them in serfdom. The ChiComs, for all their faults, brought civilization and meritocracy. But liberalism says that imperialism is always bad, and that it’s better that people live in poverty and serfdom under rulers of their own ethnicity than under modern conditions imposed by outsiders.
Hey, wiseasses, how about fixing some potholes instead of pontificating about things you know little about?
Have you actually spoken to any Tibetans about this? The Chinese killed between 200,000 and 1,000,000 Tibetans during the so-called “Great Leap Forward.”
And ethnic autonomy is really more of a third-positionist thing; liberals are just as imperialistic as conservatives.
The Chinese also killed 20-60 million Chinese during the Great Leap Forward. It wasn’t an idiotic, evil plan, but it wasn’t ethnically discriminatory. These days, Tibetian people benefit from being under Chinese rule, rather than under the serfdom that they would be under if the lamas were still in charge.
Also, I’m unaware that I have to talk to Tibetians (or Chinese) to form a view on the matter–having extensively read highly-reputable academic sources (by people who have spoken to both sides) is enough for me.
Of course you don’t have to talk to Tibetans about it; that’s just shorthand for “Perhaps their wishes and needs should be considered.” Your viewpoint seems otherwise to be typical Western paternalism, however well-intentioned.
That aside, I agree with other posters that this resolution will have absolutely no impact on the PRC’s business as usual. If they haven’t shown any remorse over the past 50 years, the filing of a Standard Moral Outrage Form by the Berkeley City Council isn’t going to change a thing.
^^^^ pro-China troll masquerading as an “anti-communist”. Probably working under orders from Beijing.
ummm how exactly does berkeley city council passing a law affect Tibet whatsoever? Seems like people just wanting attention (and I specifically mean the people who passed this, not actual Tibetans, they deserve the attention).