Vanessa leads Leftists party

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33981, 23 October 1975, Page 6

Vanessa leads Leftists party

< By

ROY GUTMAN,

A.A.P. Reuter correspondent)

LONDON.

In a real-life role as controversial as anything she has done on I stage or screen, the British actress, Vanessa Redgrave, is winning headlines as a leader of a radical Leftist political party. A political school set up Iby the Workers Revolutionary Party (W.R.P.), of which she and her brother, Corin, ■are among the leaders, came into the news following a newspaper investigation of the centre, called the Red House. It was a situation befitting the actress who starred in “Blow Up”, “Mary Queen of Scots” and the stage play of “The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie.” In a televised confrontation, an actress, Irene ' Gorst, accused the Redj graves of using terrorist-

style interrogation methods! at the school in Derbyshire. The tall, red-haired 38-year-old actress is no stranger to politics, having campaigned — and lost — in two national elections as a W.R.P. Parliamentary candidate. The daughter of a wellknown actor, Sir Michael Redgrave, she has fought for many other causes including ban-the-bomb campaigns in the early 19605. The latest controversy brought to light the considerable efforts she and other actors are putting into offstage politics. What makes the W.R.P. unique in the Left and uitra-Left is its heavy concentration of stage, screen and television actors, writers and directors. Miss Gorst, who is 28, is a light-comedy actress. She told the “Observer” newspaper that she joined the W.R.P. last March after being canvassed outside a London theatre.

I She said she believed that about 60 members of the British actors’ union, Equity, were in the party, half of them active. NO VIOLENCE The party philosophy, according to the Red School’s warden, a television producer, Roy Battersby, is to work for “the end of capitalism and establishment of socialism and ownership by the working classes..’’ But it is opposed to violence, preferring to work legally within the “system.” At the last British General Election the party fielded 10 candidates, but won few votes. To build up membership, the party set up the school at the Red House and courses began in August. Miss Gorst enrolled in the $3O course. She arrived two days late, however, and claimed the Redgraves, Mr Battersby and a television scriptwriter named Ron Smith interrogated her for seven hours as a result, accusing her at one point of spying. The “Observer” also mentioned possible arms caches at the school. Within an hour of publication, a major ; police search was held, and I several party leaders were i questioned. Although the W.R.P. has made little impact on British society, it is having an effect on the acting profession. One sympathising actor, who asked not to be named, credited the W.R.P. with “sweeping away the cobwebs” in Equity. “You may not agree with everything the Redgraves do, but they are making a fuss within their own profession. They’re breaking the rule never to bite the hand that feeds you,” he said.