Spotlight on black women councillors in Southwark

Posted by harriet in Uncategorized | January 14th, 2008

I met up with and interviewed Councillor Althea Smith last week. It’s a government commitment to increase the number of black and Asian women councillors. The Labour group in the London Borough of Southwark has the highest percentage of black women councillors in the UK….I think! I’m doing a report on the importance to the community in Southwark of our black labour women councillors and Althea was the first to be interviewed. I’ve known Althea for years and knew what a struggle it was for her to finally become a councillor, but it was great to sit down with her and ask her about her background and how she sees the way she approaches politics. Three things really struck me about what she said * that her political inspiration came not from Labour politics here but from her up brining in a highly political family in Jamaica * that having lived locally for many years, having been a school governor, chair of the local Labour party ward, tenants leader and chair of the Southwark Police Consultative Group, she had far more experience before she became a councillor compared to many other councillors and * she doesn’t rely on things getting done just because she has asked for them to be done, she chases up and chases up till it’s sorted. Next I’m interviewing Cllr Dora Dixon-Fyle who, as a child, came here from Sierra Leone with her family.