old Tibetan society was an extremely oppressive place: the vast majority of people were enslaved, brutalized and exploited by a tiny ruling class of aristocrats and top lamas (Buddhist priests).
Communists organized the oppressed class of Tibet to liberate themselves %u2014 seizing the land from old exploiters, abolishing centuries-old feudal privileges, challenging the stranglehold of superstition, and developing collective new forms of ownership and power.
On the class nature of the Dalai Lama%u2019s forces in exile%u2013it needs political sense to understand how the exiled Tibetan ruling class helped create a contra army backed by the CIA and how they organized an oppressive class society in the camps of Tibetan exiles.
the major Western imperialist powers have an interest in weakening China and will exploit the discontent of the minorities in this vast country. On the road to capitalism disparities of income and investment inevitably stir up regionalism, ethnic and national conflicts, resulting in violence and turmoil. Should Tibet ever successfully break away from China, then, as in the past, it would fall prey to one or other of the imperialist powers, "Tibetan Independence" under capitalism is a pipedream.
