Anita Pollack gained a school Leaving Certificate at Port Hacking High School in Sydney in 1962. She also holds a Diploma in Advertising in 1968 from Sydney Technical College and she received a Politics and Sociology degree from the Birkbeck College, University of London, in 1979. Between 1963 and 1968, Pollack worked as a junior account executive in an international advertising company. In 1969, she moved to London and she worked in the editorial department of Granada Publishing from 1970 to 1975. She was recruited as research assistant to (then) Rt Hon Barbara Castle, leader of Labour’s MEPs in the European Parliament, in 1980 and remained in this post until 1989.
Annita Pollack joined the Labour Party in 1970 in what was then Newham North East constituency. She served on Labour’s National Executive Womens’ Committee (on behalf of Labour MEPs) and for many years was an elected member of the London Regional Board. Pollack was a founding member of Labour Co-ordinating Committee and she was also a founding member of Emily’s List (a Labour organization devoted to helping more women become elected). She held a range of branch and constituency officerships in her local Labour Party.
In 1989, Pollack was elected member of the European Parliament and remained an MEP until 1999. During that period he was member of the Socialist Group, member of the Group of the Party of European Socialists, Chair of the Delegation for relations with the countries of South Asia and the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), Vice-Chair of the Delegation for relations with the countries of South Asia and the South Asia Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), member of the Committee on Women's Rights, member of the Delegation for relations with the Member States of ASEAN and the Republic of Korea (AIPO), member of the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Consumer Protection, member of the Delegation for relations with the countries of South Asia and the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) and member of the Committee on Women's Rights.
From 2006 to 2016 she undertook freelance consultancy on Europe and produced two books: her History of Labour MEPs in 2009 and New Labour in Europe in 2016.