PEN Background

Check out this link to a 3/12/97 article by Ralph Blumenthal in the New York Times, "Stung by Dissident, a Divided PEN Ponders Its Role."
www.nytimes.com/1997/03/12/arts/stung-by-dissident-a-divided-pen-ponders-its-role.html?pagewanted=all

Note the way the person who spoke up about the changes was isolated and marginalized, Portrayed as a nut-- a standard status quo tactic when dealing with whistleblowers. The truth was much different. This dispute was the culmination of a twelve-year process of tieing PEN American Center to big-money interests, so that by the time someone spoke out, the takeover had gone too far. It's time to reverse the takeover and return democracy to the literary world.

More to follow.
www.penpetition.blogspot.com