Selma James

Selma James is a women’s rights and antiracist campaigner and author. From 1958 to 1962, she worked with C.L.R. James in the movement for Caribbean federation and independence. In 1972, she founded the International Wages for Housework Campaign, and in 2000 she helped launch the Global Women’s Strike whose strategy for change is Invest in Caring not Killing. She coined the word “unwaged” to describe the caring work women do, and it has since entered the English language to describe all who work without wages on the land, in the home, and in the community. In 1975, she became the first spokeswoman of the English Collective of Prostitutes. She is a founding member of the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network (2008). She coauthored the classic The Power of Women and the Subversion of the Community which launched the “domestic labour debate.” She has addressed the power relations within the working class movement, and how to organize across sectors despite divisions of sex, race, and class, South and North.

Her other publications include A Woman’s Place (1952), Women, the Unions and Work, or what is not to be done (1972), Sex, Race and Class (1974), Wageless of the World (1974), The Rapist Who Pays the Rent (1982 coauthor), The Ladies and the Mammies – Jane Austen and Jean Rhys (1983), Marx and Feminism (1983), Hookers in the House of the Lord (1983), Strangers & Sisters: Women, Race and Immigration (1985  Ed & Introduction), The Global Kitchen: The Case for Counting Unwaged work (1985 and 1995), The Milk of Human Kindness: Defending Breastfeeding from the AIDS Industry and the Global Market (coauthor, 2005).

• Book events
• Reviews
• More from Selma

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Praise

“Selma James is a force of nature in the flesh and on the page. She fearlessly grapes with complex ideas, but her writing remains crystal clear and compelling. Stop what you are doing and read her now!”
—Maya Oppenheim, women’s correspondent, the Independent, UK

“One of the most important figures in the new way of thinking in the 1970s and 1980s was Selma James. James’s Marx and Feminism deserves to be considered one of the great feminist contributions to Marxist thought.”
—Monthly Review

“. . . An intellectually ambitious attempt to synthesize Marxism, feminism, and post-colonialism, not with the usual sellotaped hyphenations.”
—Jenny Turner, London Review of Books

“In an era where women are encouraged to ‘lean in’ to capitalism and power, Sex, Race and Class provides a much-needed reminder that house work and care work are work—and deserve to be recognized and compensated as such. James not only details women’s campaigns that might otherwise be forgotten, but provides a valuable blueprint for organizing towards a truly liberated society.”
—Victoria Law, author of Resistance Behind Bars: The Struggles of Incarcerated Women

“When Selma James speaks, I listen. When she writes, I read. She has been a crucial part of my reeducation for decades. She is one of the few public intellectuals that engages with issues and people all over the world yet still remains connected to the grassroots. The writings and ideas of Selma James are as relevant now as they have ever been. Her solidarity knows no borders, her compassion excludes no sufferer.”
—Benjamin Zephaniah, poet, writer, lyricist, musician, and naughty boy

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Praise

“It’s time to acknowledge James’s path-breaking analysis: from 1972 she reinterpreted the capitalist economy to show that it rests on the usually invisible unwaged caring work of women.”  —Dr. Peggy Antrobus, feminist, author of The Global Women’s Movement: Origins, Issues and Strategies

“For clarity and commitment to Haiti’s revolutionary legacy…Selma is a sister after my own heart.”  —Danny Glover, actor and activist

“The publication of these essays reflects in concentrated form the history of the new society struggling to be born. Their appearance today could not be timelier. As the fruit of the collective experience of the last half-century, they will help to acquaint a whole new generation with not only what it means to think theoretically, but, more importantly, the requirement of organization as the means of testing those ideas. In this respect, Selma James embodies in these essays the spirit of the revolutionary tradition at its most relevant.”  —Dr. Robert A. Hill, Literary Executor of the estate of C.L.R. James, University of California, Los Angeles, Director, Marcus Garvey Papers Project

“In this incisive and necessary collection of essays and talks spanning over five decades, Selma James reminds us that liberation cannot be handed down from above. This is a feminism that truly matters.”  —Dr. Alissa Trotz, Associate Professor of Women and Gender Studies, Director of Caribbean Studies, University of Toronto

“With her latest book, Selma James reaffirms what has been evident for some time:  she is—quite simply—not only one of the most outstanding feminist thinkers of her generation but, as well, an insightful and exceedingly intelligent political analyst.”  —Dr. Gerald Horne, historian and author, John J. and Rebecca Moores Chair of History and African American Studies at the University of Houston

“Selma James’s, Sex, Race and Class: The Perspective of Winning, a collection of her works over the decades. James was a founder of the Wages for Housework movement, and probably the one person whose thoughts on work, care, and power has influenced my work the most.  She’ll change your life.” —Sarah Jaffe

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Book Events

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Reviews

• Waging a war on wages
• Sex, Race, and Class: A Morning Star Review
• Sex, Race, and Class in Z Magazine
• Selma James, Our Time Is Now: Sex, Race, Class, and Caring for People and Planet
• Review: Our Time is Now: Sex, Race, Class and Caring for People and Planet
• Our Time is Now: Sex, Race, Class, and Caring for People and Planet by Selma James
• Care Work in a Wageless World
• A Life in Writing: Selma James

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Interviews

• 60 Years of Intersectional Feminism: An Interview with Selma James
• Selma James on The Surviving Society Podcast
• Preoccupying: Selma James
• Care Work and the Power of Women: An Interview with Selma James
• Selma James Speaking at the Life and Legacy of C.L.R. James Conference
• Selma James Interview with the Free Maroon Campaign
• Housework as Work: Selma James on Unwaged Labor and Decades-Long Struggle to Pay Housewives
• Sex Work as Work: Audio of a Conversation with Selma James at the Dublin Anarchist Bookfair

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Mentions

• Care Work in a Wageless World
• Selma James: “We get nothing unless we struggle”
• Life Lessons To Be Learned From A 91-Year-Old Activist
• The Politics of Motherhood, Big Night Out Reading, Women and environmental art.
• Rediscovering the Power and Utility of Selma James
• Pay People to Cook at Home: Selma James in the NYTs
• They Want the Money, So Do We: Sex, Race, and Class, in Mute Magazine
• A Life in Writing: Selma James
• As Many Pairs of Shoes as She Likes: On Feminism

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Blog

• Selma James talks speaks on her new book Sex, Race and Class–The Perspective of Winning; A Selection of Writings 1952-2011
• www.globalwomenstrike.net