SELMA JAMES

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.

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Book 2

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

Taking Agroecology to scale: Learning from the experiences of Natural Farming in India

18th May 2023

Learning from the experiences of Natural Farming in India, this new publication has been compiled by the Alliance for food sovereignty in Africa. Download a copy of it for free here below.

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Shamima case shows terrible prejudice

18th May 2023

Read Layla Omar’s brilliant article published in the Camden New Journal, describing how and why the government’s removal of Shamima Begum’s British citizenship is drenched in racism, and undermines all our rights. If Shamima isn’t British, then many of us are not.

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GWS at XR’s The Big One, 4 days of action in Central London

27th April 2023

Four days of action from 21 to 24 April brought together 60,000 people around Parliament to force the UK government to act on the climate emergency. On Friday – “Unite to Survive” day – diverse networks of mothers, grandmothers, other carers and people with disabilities spoke out on refusing poverty, the devaluing of caring and…

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TODAY Join the Haiti Action Committee for a Day of Action in Solidarity with the Haitian People, thursday 27 April.

27th April 2023

Please share this powerful statement issued yesterday by women’s and popular organizations in Haiti, calling for an end to the genocide of the people of Haiti. And join TODAY’s (Thursday) Day of Action called by Haiti Action Committee, our point of reference. Tweet/share on your social media. See Demands, sample tweets and background information here. Global Women’s Strike (GWS), Women of Color/GWS, and Payday men’s…

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Event this Friday – Join the Women’s Speak Out at XR’s The Big One

19th April 2023

Friday 21 April, 1pm, Downing Street, London SW1A 2AA. XR’s The Big One – four days of actions 21-24 April to bring together 100,000 people around Parliament to get this government to act on the climate emergency. On Friday – “Unite to Survive” day – diverse networks of mothers, grandmothers, other carers and people with disabilities will…

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Selma James’ message to Mumia, after news of the terrible Lucretia Clemons judgment that denied his latest appeal for legal redress.   

4th April 2023

Dear Mumia, It is painful to envisage your having to read this judgement where, once again, the evidence of your innocence is drowned in a racist class sadism. This is how the truth continues to be hidden.  We know from your own example and writings that prisoners often win justice by becoming jailhouse lawyers for…

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Alabama: Power to prisoners & supporters on both sides of the wall

8th February 2023

Dear friends,  We wanted you to see our letter of support (below) sent by Payday and other organizations in the Global Women’s Strike network to the prisoners’ movement against slavery and cruel and unusual punishment in the US state of Alabama.  The Alabama prisoners’ strike lasted almost a month last fall despite constant harassment and retaliation…

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Event: Selma James speaking at “Public Access Television, the Community Programme Unit and the BBC”

1st February 2023

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…

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Selma James in the Guardian: For peace in Haiti, first win the war on hunger

20th January 2023

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…

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Media: 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.

18th January 2023

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…

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