sft history
Students for a Free Tibet educates young people about human rights violations in Tibet and translates awareness into action through non-violent political, economic, and social campaigns. SFT works with a coalition of peace and social justice, interfaith, and human rights organizations to accomplish our goals and foster dialogue and understanding within our global community.
1994-1995
o SFT is born in August of 1994 as
a project of the U.S. Tibet Committee and the International
Campaign for Tibet.
o SFT has an information table at Lollapalooza in order to
increase awareness and mobilize students for Tibet.
o SFT grows to 75 universities across the country.
1995-1996
o SFT holds 1st annual SFT
National Conference at Oberlin College.
o SFTers are granted an audience with His Holiness the Dalai Lama
at Harvard University.
o SFT creates Economic Action Committee to examine business
practices of corporations on the U.S. China Business Council.
o SFT participates in the first Tibetan Freedom Concert in San
Francisco.
o SFT joins the Milarepa Fund in a boycott of "Made in
China" goods.
o SFT launches campaign to revoke China's Most Favored Nation
trading status.
o SFT launches urgent action campaigns to release Fulbright
scholar Ngawang Choephel, the six-year-old Panchen Lama, and
other prisoners of conscience.
1996-1997
o SFT holds 2nd annual SFT
National Conference at Brown University.
o SFT joins the Milarepa Fund and the Campaign for Tibet in a
month-long Tibetan Freedom Tour to promote awareness and activist
training in high schools and colleges in the U.S.
o SFT launches divestment campaign to lobby corporations on the
U.S. China Business Council.
o SFT begins boycott of Holiday Inn and its parent company, Bass
PLC, because of Holiday Inn's negative impact in Tibet.
o SFT participates in the second Tibetan Freedom Concert (New
York City), the H.O.R.D.E. tour, and Lollapalooza.
o SFT grows to over 200 chapters in North America, and expands
overseas to Europe, Asia, South America, Australia, and New
Zealand.
1997-1998
o SFT holds 3rd annual National
Conference at the University of Wisconsin.
o Holiday Inn pulls out of Tibet as a direct result of the
boycott run by SFT, the Milarepa Fund and International Tibet
Support Groups.
o SFT coordinates demonstrations across the U.S., to coincide
with the visit of Chinese President Jiang Zemin.
o SFT participates in grassroots education around the movie
releases of Seven years in Tibet and Kundun.
o SFT again participates in the Tibetan Freedom Concert
(Washington, D.C.), H.O.R.D.E., and Lollapalooza.
o SFT joins the International Campaign for Tibet and the Milarepa
Fund to participate in a major rally for Tibet on the lawn of the
U.S. Capitol building prior to President Clinton's visit to
China.
o SFT grows to over 350 chapters throughout the world, including
over 100 high schools chapters and 200 college and university
chapters.
1998-1999
o SFT holds 4th annual National
Conference at the University of Colorado.
o SFT launches new campaigns to facilitate negotiations about the
future status of Tibet and to pass Tibet resolutions at schools
and in communities. Resolutions pass in the States of
Massachusetts and New Mexico and numerous cities, including Los
Angeles, Miami, Philadelphia, Atlanta, Berkeley, Princeton, New
Paltz, Middletown, Amherst, and Madison.
o SFT coordinates commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights with a coalition of about
50 human rights and peace organizations.
o SFT spearheads efforts to set up Tibetan refugee camps in
dozens of cities, including a week-long encampment in front of
the UN.