Selma James is an antisexist, antiracist campaigner and has fought for justice for over 50 years. Born in Brooklyn, New York in 1930 she became the wife of the internationally renowned West Indian Historian and political philsopher C.L.R James. In Britain during the 1960s, she became a leading activist in the movements for the rights of immigrants and people of colour.
Selma is the author or several seminal books among them A Women's Place; Sex Race and Class; The Perspective of Winning; Wageless of the world and Women, the Unions and Work. She has lectured and led workshops all over the World and is the founder of the Wages for Housework and Care Income Now campaign.
Selma's most recent book Our Time Is Now: Sex, Race and Class and Caring for People and Planet is steeped in the tradition of Marx. She draws on half a century of organizing across sectors, struggles and national boundaries with others in the Wages for Housework Campaign and the Global Women’s Strike, an autonomous network of women, men, and other genders that agree with their perspective. There is one continuum between the care and protection of people and of the planet: both must be a priority, beginning with a care income for everyone doing this vital work. This book makes the powerful argument that the climate justice movement can draw on all the movements’ people have formed to refuse their particular exploitation, to destroy the capitalist hierarchy that is destroying the world. Our time is now.
Antiracism, anti-discrimination and the justice work we do for ourselves and with others are at the heart of Selma James' campaigning.








Our Time Is Now: Sex, Race, Class, and Caring for People and Planet
SKU: 9781629638386
Author: Selma James • Foreword by Margaret Prescod • Editor: Nina Lopez
Series: PM Press
ISBN: 978-1-62963-838-6
Published: 06/2021
Format: Paperback
Size: 6x9
Pages: 256
Subjects: Feminism / Economics
Selma James - Latest news
Event: Selma James speaking at “Public Access Television, the Community Programme Unit and the BBC”
2-6pm Saturday 25 March 2023 Bishopsgate Institute 230 Bishopsgate, London EC2M 4QH Public Access Television – the Community Programme Unit Panelists include Selma James of the International Wages for Housework Campaign/Global Women’s Strike It was the new Wages for Housework Campaign Selma had founded (1972) which brought women together to put All Work and No…
Read MoreSelma James in the Guardian: For peace in Haiti, first win the war on hunger
Your article on the Haiti crisis omits mention of the only Haitian government that people voted in by a landslide – twice. Headed by the former liberation theology priest Jean-Bertrand Aristide, Haiti’s first democratically elected president, it uniquely focused on tackling poverty, supporting small farmers, building schools and hospitals, increasing the minimum wage and demanding justice…
Read MoreMedia: Selma James joins host Margaret Prescod for the hour to discuss the history of her involvement in organizing for fair wages for women, and her continued organizing at 92 years old.
Today on Sojourner Truth, author, organizer and anti-capitalist campaigner, Selma James joins host Margaret Prescod for the hour to discuss the history of her involvement in organizing for fair wages for women, and her continued organizing at 92 years old.In 1972 Selma put forward Wages for Housework (WFH) as a political perspective that redefined the…
Read More40 Years After Sex Workers Took Over an English Church, the Fight for Justice Picks Up in San Francisco
Published in The San Francisco Standard 10 December. In 1917, hundreds of San Francisco sex workers confronted a Tenderloin church pastor for trying to chase them out of town with his sermons, effectively giving him a crash course on their inability to survive economically. That direct action laid the groundwork for sex workers in France, Canada and…
Read MoreSelma James talk on KPFA radio Letters and Politics is published
https://archives.kpfa.org/data/20221206-Tue0500.mp3?_gl=11a0pji_ga*ODQzNTI Monday, December 5, to Letters and Politics with Mitch Jeserich for an interview with Selma James of the Global Women’s Strike. The interview will be aired at either 10.08am or 10:30. Selma spoke about the historic 1982 occupation of the Holy Cross Church by sex workers in London. She was their spokeswoman at the time and…
Read MoreEvent: meet Selma James – the celebrated author & campaigner
Dear friends, You are welcome to come and meet the celebrated author and campaigner Selma James on Thursday, 15 December, 5pm at our local Kentish Town Library, NW5 2AA. Selma will speak about her latest anthology Our Time is Now – Sex, Race, Class, and Caring for People and Planet, followed by discussion.Please RSVP.
Read MoreNadja News: Ten times women’s unpaid care work was recognised in history.
Cooking, cleaning, gathering food and water, and caring for children and the elderly are vital for families and societies. Yet this work, performed by women 75% of the time, has seldom been given the recognition it deserves, creating huge inequality around the world. Here are ten times unpaid care work has been recognised for what it…
Read MorePress statement: Women Human Rights Defenders collective in Thailand amplify demands to goverment.
On the occasion of International Women Human Rights Defenders Day we, Community WHRDs Collective in Thailand gather to restate and amplify our demands first submitted to three Parliamentary Committees to mark International WHRD Day, 21 November 2019. We re-affirm that the 2017 Constitution is not fit for purpose and must be replaced. It must be…
Read MoreEvent : Black Women’s Lives Count: Reclaiming Our Sisters Everywhere.
Support a permanent memorial for South Los Angeles victims of serial murders. ONLINE Thursday, December 8, 2022 3:30pm PST / 5:30pm CST / 6:30pm ESTRegister at https://bit.ly/rosesladec8 Event organized by Black Coalition Fighting Back Serial MurdersDonate: http://rosesouthla.org/donate For more info: http://rosesouthla.org/contact-us.
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