With a political crisis engulfing the Labour Party, the case for PR is back on the agenda. TONY BURKE argues trade unions must now engage on changes to our voting system
IN 2021, students at the University of Liverpool voted by a huge majority to rename Gladstone Hall, one of the halls of residence, Dorothy Kuya Hall. The wonderful irony of choosing a black Liverpudlian communist to replace the several-times prime minister of Britain speaks volumes. But who was Dorothy Kuya?
She was born on March 16 1933 in Liverpool, her mother a local woman and her father from Sierra Leone. The latter soon disappeared from their lives but her mother married a Nigerian seafarer, so young Dorothy took his name and he proved to be a loving father to her and her siblings. His influence alongside others like Ludwig Hesse, a communist seafarer from the Gold Coast, now Ghana, had a positive influence on her life.
The Kuya family lived in Liverpool 8, virtually a ghetto at that time with mainly black and mixed-heritage people suffering poor housing and constant unemployment.
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