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. 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.
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.
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.
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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Urgent: Tell Congress, Include Extended CTC in End Of Year Tax Package!
How long will the richest country in the world tolerate millions of our children in poverty? Urgent action needed to bring back extended CTC, which lifted millions of children out of poverty! The time is NOW to contact Congress because the reinstatement of the expanded Child Tax Credit is being debated as part of negotiations…
Read MoreEvent: Meet the brave Colombian women campaigning against state murders
We are delighted to welcome Jacqueline Castillo and Rubiela Giraldo from MAFAPO (Madres de los Falsos Positivos) a courageous network of mothers and other women fighting for justice for over 6,402 innocent civilians murdered by the Colombian state, in a campaign of atrocities known as “Falsos Positivos”. As millions across the world demonstrate for a…
Read MorePress release: Wages for Housework film All Work and No Pay at Tate Exhibition Women in Revolt.
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…
Read MoreStatement: To united Families & Friends Campaign (UFFC) against all state violence.
-The consistent campaigning which you have led for decades for justice for family membersand loved ones has helped build the movement to hold UK police and establishment accountable for their crimes.– Women of all races have joined people of colour demanding an end to the violence and injusticewe have suffered at the hands of the…
Read MoreEvent: Theft from Africa – Workshop for Black History Month.
Women of Colour GWS tell the story of what the British and other empires stole from the African continent and its people. According to research, £7.5 trillion is owed by Britain to its former colonies for slavery. Is this an underestimate and if so what is the true cost of the theft of people and resources…
Read MorePress Release: Mothers and Other Family Caregivers From Across The US Tell Congress to Value Our Work
Congressional Briefing featuring Rep. Gwen Moore (WI-4), directly impacted family caregivers from across the country and policy experts, followed by Press Conference. October 24, 2023 9-10am Briefing, 10:30am Press Conference. Briefing: Rayburn House Office Building, Rm 2060, Washington DC. Breakfast served. Press conference: House Triangle, United States Capitol
Read MoreCaregiving is Work Congressional Briefing in DC, Tues 24 October
Congressional Briefing and Press Conference, Caregiving is Work: Supporting mothers and other family caregivers through the Worker Relief and Credit Reform Act (WRCR) and beyond
Please join us Tuesday in Washington DC! Also being live-streamed on Center for the Study of Social Policy Facebook page
Read MoreProtest: Stand with the people of Haiti! NOT another invasion.
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…
Read MoreEvent: Workshop on Autonomy – women, race & immigration, at the Anarchist Bookfair.
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…
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