The Panovs

In 1972, well-known ballet dancers –husband and wife Valery and Galina Panov – tried to leave the USSR. However, they were refused permission and were subsequently thrown out of the leading Kirov Ballet company and briefly imprisoned. Many from the international performing arts community took up the Panovs’ cause and campaigned for them to be able to leave, including Equity members Sir Laurence Olivier, Richard Attenborough and Vanessa Redgrave.

Petitions were signed, demonstrations were held outside the Soviet Embassy in London, and the casts of 20 shows in the West End of London signed an appeal for the Panovs. In 1973, the cast of Coronation Street voiced their opposition to the Kirov Ballet performing in Manchester, and in 1974 Equity appealed to the British government to ban the Soviet Union’s other leading company, the Bolshoi Ballet. These actions, joined with others across the world, led to the Panovs being granted permission to leave the USSR that year, after which they settled in Israel.

This was one of the first issues to galvanise a band of Equity members – including Dame Peggy Ashcroft, Janet Henfrey, Robert Mill and Paul Eddington – to form a group to support the human rights of foreign artists that would be called The FIA Solidarity and Aid Fund Committee.

Chilean artists

Following the military coup in Chile in 1973, led by General Augusto Pinochet, the prominent musician and theatre director Victor Jara was tortured and killed by the army. His British-born wife, Joan Jara, escaped to London with their children and became a leading activist helping persecuted Chileans throughout Pinochet’s dictatorship.

Through Joan, Equity learned when actors were being trialled in Chile and would help them to obtain work in the UK so they might be granted permission to leave. Working with British theatres such as the Royal Shakespeare Company, The Royal Court and the Oxford Playhouse, contracts were issued for the actors that they could produce at their trials. As a result, many came to the UK and were given Equity membership.

In 1978, the committee became established as ICAF.