One thing is sure: the nonviolent struggle for freedom for Tibet is not yet started. Without doubt during the last 40 years the Dalai Lama, the Tibetan government in exile and the Tibetans have fought without a single violent act, demonstrating their desire to peacefully solve their problem. Nevertheless, pacifism is not nonviolence. As nonviolence is not absence of violence. The nonviolence taught by Gandhi and Martin Luther King is a for of political struggle founded on dialogue and therefore on the relationship to the adversary, but still a form of a tough, direct struggle, which differs from the violent one "only" because it use other weapons.

This leads to a first question that we should ask ourselves: "do we want to move from a pacifist to a nonviolent struggle? In other words, do we all - Tibetans and non Tibetans - want to organize and translate into action this nonviolence in a worldly Satyagraha for freedom for occupied Tibet?

If the answer is yes, we have to understand if certain conditions, particularly three, are at hand:

a) The preciseness of the objective that we want to achieve and, most of all, of its key "institutional" level.

The main goal is, for most of us Tibetans and non, freedom for Tibet. Freedom that can be defined with the words of the Dalai Lama: reaching a wide autonomy which will exclude foreign and defense issues.

As regards the "institutional" level - the beginning of a negotiation without prejudices under the auspices of the United Nations between the Chinese government and the Tibetan government in exile - things are more complicated. There is, without doubt, a large consensus regarding the dialogue; less clear appears the way in which these negotiations should be carried on. "Under the auspices of the United Nations" it is not a neutral statement, because it implies a formal recognition by the international community of the whole process, Making it become a sort of guarantor of the negotiations. It is obvious that other negotiations are possible, the most dangerous remains the secret one between the two parts.

b) the battlefield and the organization.

Schematically we can divide the "front" in three parts: occupied Tibet, China and the "rest of the world".

For the first period the essential part of the mobilization should be concentrated, for evident reasons of feasibility, on "the rest of the world". I don't need to be expand on that, because we all know perfectly the risks that Tibetans and Chinese would encounter. Nevertheless we should keep the second and third fronts (Tibet and China) always well informed on the initiatives undertaken by the first one. This implies the use of effective means of communication to get in touch with the fronts and eventually organize and coordinate the activities both from outside and the inside. Radio "Voice of Tibet" has already perfectly served this purpose, now it is time for the People's Republic of China to have the same tool.

From an organizational point of view, we must establish a network that can have nothing but worldly dimensions, a movement that should be able to mobilize simultaneously dozens, if not hundreds of thousands of people, on the same objectives and most of all nonviolently. In other words we should create something similar to the 1960s' anti-Vietnam movement. This time without the word "against" (America), but "for" Tibet. For Freedom for Tibet and Democracy in China, for an international human community based on rights.

c) the methodology

The nonviolent arsenal is richer than we think. Besides the most known "weapons": individual or collective fastings, hunger strikes, sit-in, boycotts, rallies, marches, walk-arounds, there are many other methods. We should start thinking about them and try to understand which could be useful for our cause, but at the same time we should invent new ones, keeping in mind that these should be thought for a large number of people for all those who would like to join this worldly movement.

Of the above-mentioned conditions only the first is in part satisfied (the negotiation process still remains uncertain). As regards the organization it seems to me that, after the past years' experience, a large group of people, profoundly committed and willing to mobilize, already exists. Lastly as regards nonviolence and our capacity of making it become "the" tool for our mobilization, I am sure that we can positively surprise ourselves if, and only if, we will be organized and determined.

Articles on "SATYAGRAHA" can be faxed or emailed to the Brussels office of the Transnational Radical Party (fax:+32-2-284.9198, email:pr.bruxelles@agora.stm.it.) preferably in English, French and Italian and should not exceed 40-50 lines. Thank you

Note: the articles must be sent via fax or, preferably, via e-mail, to our TRP office in Brussels (fax: 32-2-284.91.98; e-mail: pr.bruxelles@agora.stm.it). Articles should be in English, French, or Italian. The length of the text should not exceed 40-50 lines.

(Published by FREEDOM FOR TIBET/DEMOCRACY IN CHINA ! - Number 58 - 31 May, 1997)