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Rushdie Crosses the Picket Line

A P Kamath in New York

Salman Rushdie, the outspoken champion of the working class during the 1980s, crossed the picket lines in Manhattan on Tuesday to attend the PEN American Center's Awards Gala. So did the playwright Arthur Miller whose Death of A Salesman is an acute criticism of capitalism and whose revival is a big hit on Broadway.

The demonstration was part of the ongoing protest against the Rainbow Room, the restaurant atop the Rockefeller Plaza, whose owners, the Cipriani family, refused to hire 250 union workers. Nearly 100 whistle-blowing union workers gathered outside Cipriani at 42nd Street where the PEN gala was held.

PEN officials issued a statement earlier that they had learned about the labor dispute early in the week and that it was not feasible to move to another location in about two days.

While most of the over 150 invitees attended the black-tie event a handful of writers decided not to cross the picket line. The New York Times said that while Gay Talese and Thomas Cahill did not go in, George Stephanopolous, a former adviser to President Bill Clinton, and author of the bestseller, All Too Human went in only to tell his publisher that he won't stay. 'I respect the work PEN does,' The Times quoted him, 'but I also had to respect the picket line.'

PEN, which has stood up against censorship and victimization of writers, sprang to Rushdie's defense when Iran issued a fatwa and death sentence against the writer following the publication of The Satanic Verses. Miller joined Norman Mailer and several liberal and leftist writers, in condemning the Iranian edict.

In a statement issued before the May 12 event, the organization said that it championed the freedom of expression and fought censorship, and it supported the fundamental rights of all people including the workers. But it also said it regretted "being dragged into a dispute to which we are not a party."

Earlier, Michael Cunningham’s work, The Hours was selected by judges Sue Miller, Joanna Scott, and Lawrence Thornton as the winner of the 1999 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction. The PEN/Faulkner Award is the largest annual prize for fiction in the United States. The winner of the award receives $ 15,000 and each of the four nominees receives $ 5,000.

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