For the past three months, the Visual Artists Guild,  Reporters Without Borders, Caltech Falun Gong Club, Conscience Foundation, China Ministries International, L.A. Friends of Tibet, Justice for American Victims in China, Jews Against Genocide, New York Coalition for Darfur and many other human rights groups and volunteers have been working to urge the city of Pasadena to oppose a Beijing Olympics float of shame, sponsored by the Avery Dennison Company, as part of the 2008 Tournament of Roses Parade.

For the past three months, the Visual Artists Guild, Reporters Without Borders, Caltech Falun Gong Club, Conscience Foundation, China Ministries International, L.A. Friends of Tibet, Justice for American Victims in China, Jews Against Genocide, New York Coalition for Darfur and many other human rights groups and volunteers have been working to urge the city of Pasadena to oppose a Beijing Olympics float of shame, sponsored by the Avery Dennison Company, as part of the 2008 Tournament of Roses Parade.

The Rose Parade float would be a propaganda coup for the PRC government in the same way the 1936 Olympics opening ceremony at Berlin was a fascist fantasy come true for Hitler.

The Visual Artists Guild presented recommendations to the Pasadena Human Relations Commission. Our first recommendation is for Pasadena's Mayor Bill Bogaard and the Pasadena City Council to send a letter to the Tournament of Roses Association and request that they withdraw its invitation to Beijing for a Rose Parade float until Beijing fulfills its Olympics promises.

We included a letter signed by more than 40 prominent Chinese intellectuals demanding that the PRC end human rights abuses. They included ademand for amnesty for all prisoners of conscience, allowing exiles to return to China and allowing foreign and Chinese journalists to conduct interviews without pre-approval.

Reporters Without Borders has outlined the need for the PRC to ensure freedom for everyone who has been in prison for the 1989 Tiananmen protests, to end control of the media including the Internet and abolish Article 306 of the criminal code which allows lawyers to be arrested or banned.

Human Rights Watch is demanding that the PRC government fulfill the promise made by Wang Wei, secretary-general of the Beijing Olympics Games Bid Committee, to the international media that they will have "complete freedom to report when they come to China."

Friends of Tibet are pleading for the PRC government to allow the International Red Cross to ascertain the health of Gedhun Choekyi Nyima, the missing Panchen Lama and engage in good-faith negotiations with the Tibetan Government-in-Exile for establishment of true autonomy for Tibet.

The New York Coalition for Darfur and Jews Against Genocide have stated their opposition to the Beijing Rose Float because of China's role in supporting the Sudanese government's genocide in Darfur.

Roman Catholics call for the release of Bishop Jia Zhiguo, the underground Roman Catholic Bishop of the Diocese of Zheng Ding in Hebei Province, who was arrested Aug. 23, and the release of Father Wen Daoxin of Beiwangli Village, Qingyuan County, Hebei, arrested Aug. 15.

Falun Gong practitioners from California call for the release of California resident Hongwei Lou's husband Dongwei Bu, who was arrested in Beijing on May 19, 2006, and has been sentenced to 2.5 years in a labor camp because he practices Falun Gong.

The city of Pasadena can play a significant role in helping China keep its Olympics promise. But until they do, any association with the Beijing Olympics' float of shame will besmirch the reputation of the city of Pasadena.

Ann Lau

Chair, Visual Artists Guild