The New Direction Of Vanessa Redgrave

British Actress Is Still Trying To Change The World

(CBS)  The Palestinian cause was just one focus of her various political beliefs. She marched with unemployed workers in Italy, and back home in Britain she played a leading role in the leftist, militant Worker’s Revolutionary Party.

She ran for a seat in Parliament, and on election night the numbers told the story. Her Labour Party opponent, George Martin Morton, had 12,556 votes; Redgrave 394.

Despite the loss, the revolutionary Vanessa Redgrave marched on.

"Do you see the Worker’s Revolutionary Power coming to power barring armed insurrection? Truly?" Wallace asked back in 1979.

"Barring armed insurrection?" Redgrave replies.

"Without," Wallace says.

"Well, it isn't the Worker's Revolutionary Party that comes to power, it's the working class that takes power. It needs an instrument for that," Redgrave says.

"Do you see that happening barring, without armed insurrection?" Wallace asks.

"No," Redgrave replies. "The working class is going to have to take power through armed insurrection."

Wallace follows up today, and asks "And did they?”.

"Yes. I would say that happened in 1989 when the wall in Berlin was torn down and millions went out into the streets all over Europe. That was workers. That was all kinds of people," she says.

"You have lost a few roles, I understand. Have had several theatrical engagements cancelled…found yourself in financial straits even, because of your politics, because of your activism. Was it worth it?" Wallace asks.

"I think that it's always worth to stand by some basic principles," says Redgrave. "So if I've lost some roles because somebody, some distributor didn't like my politics, that's par for the course, as they used to say."

She went on to make dozens of what she calls "lovely" films, like the period drama "Howard's End," but she did not appear in any Hollywood blockbusters for years, until 1996, when she was cast in "Mission Impossible."

"I played a British arms dealer, which I was delighted to do," Redgrave says.

Asked why, Redgrave says, "Because it broke the convention that only shady foreign types go in for arms dealing. …So I was very pleased to play a rather wicked lady who was an arms dealer and British."

Here in New York, Wallace and Redgrave talked for a long time, and they took a few breaks. During one of the breaks, Redgrave stopped to smoke a cigarette.

Wallace questions her about it: "Why you, damn fool?"

"'Cause I'm an addict, that's why," she replies, laughing. "But I try to cut it out. And I don't when I'm around places."

"How much do you smoke?" Wallace asks.

"That's my business. I smoke a lot," Redgrave says. "But I cut down when I'm working. So it's my problem. Big problem."

[alancarl1]

As my Jewish mother would say, a tiger doesn't change its stripes. Fortunately, Mom was often wrong about things, and for all I know Ms. Redgrave may be a true friend of the Jewish people today.

Those Jews who harbor ill-will for Ms. Redgrave's harsh statements made long ago should get over it. We need to bring the world together, not continue tearing it apart. We Jews need to keep vigilant - our history requires it. But clearly Ms. Redgrave is no threat to the security of world Jewry. And if she thought about it, I think even even Mom would agree.

[altalker1]

Anti-Zionism singles out the national feelings and movement of the Jews and considers Israel -and only Israel- an illegitimate state. It proposes actions, which would bring death to millions of Jews. Although from a strictly theoretical point of view you could be anti-Zionistic and not anti-Semite, in the real world the two come together.
In a propaganda film of the late 1970%u2019s, the radical Vanessa Redgrave performed a sensuous dance with a PLO machine gun. Whenever the film attacks Jews and Judaism, although the Arabic word Yahud (Jew) is used, the English subtitles read %u201CZionists%u201D. Martin Luther King understood the question very clearly when he declared: %u201CThey criticize Zionists but they mean Jews. You%u2019re talking anti-Semitism.%u201D
The overall attack on Zionism is appalling if we consider that even progressives such as feminists and ecologists were partners of the assault, even when in their areas of interest Israel can show a much better record than the Arab world, which can not exhibit one single democracy throughout its twenty-one states. Jean Paul Sartre reacted to the hypocrisy of considering the Arab world, with its slavery and feudal states as Socialist, and Israel, with its kibbutzim and welfare state as %u201Ca lackey of imperialism.%u201D Israel is one of the few states whose birth was indispensable to save thousands of lives.
Acknowledgement: From lectures given by Dr. Perednik published in http://www.New-Angle.org

[rkhater]

Unlike the Iranian president Ms. Redgrave has never called for the destruction of the state of Israel. Ms.Redgrave worked for the lifting of injustice from the Palestinian people and not for carrying out another injustice on the Israeli people.
Being anti-Zionist is not the same as being anti-jewish. Zionisim is a political movement whose aim is to establish a nation for one race or religion that excludes other groups living in the same land. One can imagine that the Nazi philosophy which called for removing the Jews from Europe can find something in common with the Zionist idea of establishing a homeland for the Jews in Palestine.

[rkhater]

Unlike the Iranian president Ms. Redgrave has never called for the destruction of the state of Israel. Ms.Redgrave worked for the lifting of injustice from the Palestinian people and not for carrying out another injustice on the Israeli people.
Being anti-Zionist is not the same as being anti-jewish. Zionisim is a political movement whose aim is to establish a nation for one race or religion that excludes other groups living in the same land. One can imagine that the Nazi philosophy which called for removing the Jews from Europe can find something in common with the Zionist idea of establishing a homeland for the Jews in Palestine.

[cdfoxtrot]

I hadn't known that Vanessa had taken such a courageous stand on behalf of the Palestinian people. It was a little before my time but it's sad there aren't others following in her footsteps today. Here in America we only get the pro-Israel view on things, and the US news channels are either biased or afraid to offend the pro-Israel crowd. Pity anyone who stands up to the Israelis, such as the British unions who are currently under attack for being so bold as to push for boycotts of Israel.

[altalker1]

Anti-Zionism singles out the national feelings and movement of the Jews and considers Israel -and only Israel- an illegitimate state. It proposes actions, which would bring death to millions of Jews. Although from a strictly theoretical point of view you could be anti-Zionistic and not anti-Semite, in the real world the two come together.
In a propaganda film of the late 1970%u2019s, the radical Vanessa Redgrave performed a sensuous dance with a PLO machine gun. Whenever the film attacks Jews and Judaism, although the Arabic word Yahud (Jew) is used, the English subtitles read %u201CZionists%u201D. Martin Luther King understood the question very clearly when he declared: %u201CThey criticize Zionists but they mean Jews. You%u2019re talking anti-Semitism.%u201D
The overall attack on Zionism is appalling if we consider that even progressives such as feminists and ecologists were partners of the assault, even when in their areas of interest Israel can show a much better record than the Arab world, which can not exhibit one single democracy throughout its twenty-one states. Jean Paul Sartre reacted to the hypocrisy of considering the Arab world, with its slavery and feudal states as Socialist, and Israel, with its kibbutzim and welfare state as %u201Ca lackey of imperialism.%u201D Israel is one of the few states whose birth was indispensable to save thousands of lives.
Acknowledgement: From lectures given by Dr. Perednik published in http://www.New-Angle.org

[imagineit-2009]

Mike Wallace, I honor your dedication as a person to present a great human being, Ms. Redgrave! While her politics and views may differ from many, she does have the right to be outspoken about them.

Ms. Redgrave has shown the world that there are 2 sides to every plight and fight. Even though her causes may be unpopular I feel exceptionally touched that this woman has the courage to be the voice of those who have not been valued in this world.

[mackandal-2009]

I regret that Mike Wallace considers his interview with Vanessa Redgrave one of his finest stories. Mr. Wallace should be ashamed to suggest that the pro-Palestinian stance for which Ms. Redgrave has been known should be equated with anti-Semitism. He should be even more ashamed to compare Ms. Redgrave's stance with that of the extreme position against Israel that Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmedinejad takes, as Mr. Wallace does in the introduction to Mr. Ahmedinejad's segment, which followed.

While neither side in the Mideast conflict can cloak itself in innocence, to suggest that the issue of violence is something to be addressed only by Palestine is to omit these facts, among many others: that Palestinian land is illegally occupied by the Israelis; that Palestinian homes are bulldozed with heavy equipment sold to the Israelis by U.S. firms; and that Palestinian families, including children and elderly, are as a result displaced and often killed. Shame on Mr. Wallace for shelving CBS's time-honored tradition of news and news analysis, and thus allowing the Israeli government to continue perpetrating
human-rights violations in the shadows.

[mackandal-2009]

I regret that Mike Wallace considers his interview with Vanessa Redgrave one of his finest stories. Mr. Wallace should be ashamed to suggest that the pro-Palestinian stance for which Ms. Redgrave has been known should be equated with anti-Semitism. He should be even more ashamed to compare Ms. Redgrave's stance with that of the extreme position against Israel that Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmedinejad takes, as Mr. Wallace does in the introduction to Mr. Ahmedinejad's segment, which followed.

While neither side in the Mideast conflict can cloak itself in innocence, to suggest that the issue of violence is something to be addressed only by Palestine is to omit these facts, among many others: that Palestinian land is illegally occupied by the Israelis; that Palestinian homes are bulldozed with heavy equipment sold to the Israelis by U.S. firms; and that Palestinian families, including children and elderly, are as a result displaced and often killed. Shame on Mr. Wallace for shelving CBS's time-honored tradition of news and news analysis, and thus allowing the Israeli government to continue perpetrating
human-rights violations in the shadows.