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.
The Global Women’s Strike and Women of Colour GWS, which have campaigned for financial recognition for unwaged caring work for decades, contributed to the Green New Deal for Europe and jointly called on governments everywhere to provide a Care Income, starting now. This would prioritize and support the work of all those, of every gender, who care for people, for the urban and rural environment, and for the natural world.
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.
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.
Starting in March and for the whole of 2022, the International Wages for Housework Campaign,
which co-ordinates the Global Women’s Strike, will celebrate its golden anniversary. We are holding a series of events and launching our 1972-2022 archives at the Bishopsgate Institute.
On 8 March 2022, the Global Women's Strike launched an International Survey - What Do Mothers and other Carers Want? Join the discussion here:
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