Global Women’s Strike is an international multiracial network campaigning for recognition and payment for all caring work for people and planet - a Care Income.

It is co-ordinated by the International Wages for Housework Campaign which was launched by Selma James in 1972.

Selma James

Selma James is an antisexist, antiracist campaigner. In 1972 she put forward Wages for Housework (WFH) as a demand and a political perspective that redefined the working class. The International WFH Campaign she founded coordinates the Global Women’s Strike. She coined the word “unwaged,” which incorporates all workers without wages. She co-authored the classic The Power of Women and the Subversion of the Community and is the author of Sex, Race and Class and other pathbreaking writing.

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Global Women's Strike

The Global Women’s Strike and Women of Colour GWS, which have campaigned for financial recognition for unwaged caring work for decadescontributed to the Green New Deal for Europe and jointly called on governments everywhere to provide a Care Income, starting now. As mothers, carers, farmers/farm workers, land and human rights’ defenders, women do most of the work of feeding (starting with breastfeeding) and protecting families and communities, the soil and the environment.

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Wages for Housework

Wages for Housework begins with those of us with least power internationally – unwaged workers in the home (mothers, housewives, domestic workers denied pay), and unwaged workers on the land and in the community.

Wages for Housework is a demand, it is also a perspective, a way of organising from the bottom up, of autonomous sectors working together to end the power relations among us.

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Watch our workshop with our sisters from Andhra Pradesh Community Managed Natural Farming

By Global Women's Strike | 25th January 2024

Speakers: Meerabi Chunduru, Swati Renduchintala, Vijay Kumar, Selma James. Chair: Jyoti Fernandes In the last 20 years, in Andhra Pradesh, India, grassroots women in a secular movement of self-help groups are collectively transforming the food they grow, their families’ health, and increasing their income. They are the largest transition to agroecology in the world, simultaneously…

Mothers Manifesto outside Parliament today!

By Global Women's Strike | 13th December 2023

Dear friends The Global Women’s Strike will be supporting the Mother’s Manifesto on Wednesday 13 December, 9.30-2pm, on their stall outside Parliament while some of them meet MPs inside. We hope you will join us there for all or some of the time. Mother’s Manifesto are a group of mothers who have been campaigning for 18 months to raise awareness of family food poverty and…

Press release: Wages for Housework film All Work and No Pay at Tate Exhibition Women in Revolt.

By Global Women's Strike | 7th November 2023

The Wages for Housework film All Work and No Pay is part of the major Tate Britain exhibition Women in Revolt which opens tomorrow 8 November 2022 and runs until April 2024. The film was made by the Wages for Housework Campaign (WFH) with the BBC community access unit Open Door in 1975. It provided…

Protest: Stand with the people of Haiti! NOT another invasion.

By Global Women's Strike | 9th October 2023

The Global Women’s Strike UK (GWS), Women of Colour GWS and Caribbean Labour Solidarity join with Haiti Action Committee US in defence of the people of Haiti. Join us to demonstrate: Tuesday 10 October 2023, 4.30-6pm at Kenya High Commission, 45 Portland Place, London W1B 1AS. Haiti Action Committee condemns in the strongest possible terms…

Event: Workshop on Autonomy – women, race & immigration, at the Anarchist Bookfair.

By Global Women's Strike | 28th September 2023

Join us at the Anarchist Bookfair in London next week. Workshop: Autonomy – women, race and immigration. Saturday 7 October 1pm – 2:30pm Zilkha Auditorium, Whitechapel Gallery. In 1982, the Wages for Housework Campaign organised the first conference in the UK on women, race and immigration. Insisting on our right to be here is even…

Event: London Socialist Film Co-Op presents: Walter Rodney: What they don’t want you to know.

By Global Women's Strike | 14th September 2023

Join us for a screening of Walter Rodney: What they don’t Want you to Know (2022), a documentary exploring the life of Guyanese academic and activist Dr Walter Rodney.  The event will be accompanied by a panel and Q&A with: Arlen Harris, director Dr. Patricia Rodney, academic and widow of Walter Rodney Selma James, writer and activist…

Event: Climate change – learning from women farmers in Andhra Pradesh, India.

By Global Women's Strike | 13th July 2023

A Global Women’s Strike event for South India Heritage Month. Thursday 20 July 2023, 6-8pm, Swiss Cottage Library, 88 Avenue Rd, London NW3 3HA.  ALL WELCOME. What we saw when we visited the women’s self-help groups transforming their communities with natural farming. We in the city must know more about how our food is grown…

Press conference and action outside Philadelphia Family Court: Take away our poverty, not our children – Implement recommendations on child separation

By Global Women's Strike | 12th June 2023

For Children’s Week for the Child Tax Credit, mothers, grandmothers and supporters from Philadelphia will be joined by others from Baltimore, Los Angeles, Milwaukee, New York, England and Scotland who are suffering from the same abusive child welfare system. We are demanding the implementation of the Recommendations of the Philadelphia City Council Special Committee on Child Separation, starting with: Poverty is not neglect and must not be used as a reason for child removal; Get resources to mothers/caregivers – support, not separation; Open the family court

PRESS RELEASE: As new Child Tax Credit legislation is introduced in Congress, international networks gather in Philadelphia to demand an End of Mothers’/Caregivers’ Poverty.

By Global Women's Strike | 8th June 2023

This week new legislation making permanent the Child Tax Credit (CTC) was introduced into Congress (The American Family Act).  The expanded refundable CTC which expired last year had cut the child poverty rate in the US almost in half.  This and other measures to get cash directly into the hands of mothers and families will be the focus of a national and international gathering this weekend June 9-11, entitled End Women’s Poverty – A Guaranteed Care Income for All Caregivers of People & Planet.  Childcare available.

Press Announcement: International and Community Gathering in Philadelphia, June 9-11

By Global Women's Strike | 1st June 2023

End Women’s Poverty: A Care Income, A Movement Whose Time Has Come What: International and Community Gathering: End Women’s Poverty – A Guaranteed Care Income for All Caregivers of People & PlanetWhen: June 9-11, 2023Where: Crossroads Women’s Center, 5011 Wayne Ave, Philadelphia PA 19144, and online The Global Women’s Strike and the new Crossroads Women’s…

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We are part of a global collective of a number of autonomous organisations within the Global Women’s Strike.  Each has its own constituency and campaigns, each can count on the collective power of all.

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In 2022, the International Wages for Housework Campaign, which co-ordinates the Global Women’s Strike, celebrated its golden anniversary. We held a series of events and launched our 1972-2022 archives at the Bishopsgate Institute.

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Caring for the land: A natural farming movement in Andhra Pradesh in India, spearheaded by women’s self-help groups is regenerating the soil, and if widely practised, can help stop global warming and even be key to reversing it.

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Our recent news >>>

Día Internacional de la Mujer Acto para Juntar Fondos En Apoyo de Mujeres y Niñes Palestinas/os

By Global Women's Strike | 6th March 2024

Este Día Internacional de la Mujer, nosotras estamos en en solidaridad con mujeres, niñes y familias Palestinas en contra del genocidio llevado por Israel y EE.UU, incluyendo el bombardeo de Palestina y la hambruna causada. Acto para Juntar Fondos En Apoyo de Mujeres y Niñes Palestinas/os Estamos juntando fondos para la organización Alianza del Medio…

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International Women’s Day fundraiser to support Palestinian women & children, Sunday March 10

By Global Women's Strike | 29th February 2024

This International Women’s Day, we stand with Palestinian women, children, and their families against the Israel/US genocide including bombing and starvation.

Online fundraiser for Palestinian Women and Children

All proceeds to Middle Eastern Children’s Alliance (MECA) who are organizing food & other direct support in Gaza.

Sunday March 10, 1 PM PST / 4 PM EST

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We denounce the gay Israeli Defense’s (IDF) soldiers

By Global Women's Strike | 1st February 2024

We denounce the gay Israeli Defense Force’s (IDF) soldiers in this article https://www.jta.org/…/israeli-lgbtq-soldiers-hope-the… and all vicious Israeli pinkwashing. There is No Pride in the Slaughter of Others!  Palestinian people in Gaza being bombed, starved, and denied all human rights, will not care if the IDF soldiers killing them and their loved ones are gay or…

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Congress: Don’t exclude the most vulnerable children from the Child Tax Credit!

By Global Women's Strike | 26th January 2024

URGENT! Please ask Congressional leadership and your reps to make critical improvements to the Child Tax Credit (CTC) in the Tax Relief for American Families and Workers Act of 2024, the bi-partisan bill now under consideration. ⚡ Also call and tweet your members of Congress and Congressional leadership, see below While there are some positive…

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Tweets: Congress, don’t exclude the most vulnerable children from the Child Tax Credit!

By Global Women's Strike | 26th January 2024

URGENT: Tax Relief for American Families & Workers Act is being voted on as soon as week of Jan 29. Tell Congressional leaders & your reps to strengthen it to include covering the poorest children in #ChildTaxCredit. ✍ https://actionnetwork.org/letters/congress-dont-exclude-the-most-vulnerable-children-from-the-child-tax-credit/ URGENT! @RepJeffries @SpeakerJohnson @SenSchumer @LeaderMcConnell don’t leave the poorest, most vulnerable children out of #ChildTaxCredit. The…

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Watch our workshop with our sisters from Andhra Pradesh Community Managed Natural Farming

By Global Women's Strike | 25th January 2024

Speakers: Meerabi Chunduru, Swati Renduchintala, Vijay Kumar, Selma James. Chair: Jyoti Fernandes In the last 20 years, in Andhra Pradesh, India, grassroots women in a secular movement of self-help groups are collectively transforming the food they grow, their families’ health, and increasing their income. They are the largest transition to agroecology in the world, simultaneously…

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We were shocked and saddened by the sudden death of Benjamin Zephaniah

By Global Women's Strike | 25th January 2024

Benjamin was an old friend of the Wages for Housework Campaign/ Global Women’s Strike since our centre’s early days in a King’s Cross squat. The last time we had the pleasure to see him was in October 2022 at the 40th anniversary of the English Collective of Prostitutes occupation of the Holy Cross Church against…

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The compromise Tax Relief for American Families and Workers Act of 2024 leaves out the most impoverished families while giving big tax benefits to corporations

By Global Women's Strike | 19th January 2024

We are mothers, grandmothers and other unpaid family caregivers who have been pressing for reinstatement of the expanded child tax credit (CTC) and for our caregiving work to be valued and supported.  We recognize and appreciate the effort that went into this bi-partisan proposal, but it must not exclude the most impoverished children. Representative DeLauro,…

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4 Jan: Women Feed the World – Oxford Real Farming Conference

By Global Women's Strike | 2nd January 2024

Dear friends, Join our online workshop with our sisters from Andhra Pradesh Community Managed Natural Farming at the Oxford Real Farming Conference on 4 January 2024, where they are speaking in person about their world-changing work – info below. Register and please choose the free bursary ticket option here https://orfc.org.uk/book-orfc-2024-tickets/. This also gives access to…

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