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.
Event: London Socialist Film Co-Op presents: Walter Rodney: What they don’t want you to know.
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 Prof.…
Read MoreEvent: Climate change – learning from women farmers in Andhra Pradesh, India.
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…
Read MoreTaking Agroecology to scale: Learning from the experiences of Natural Farming in India
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.
Read MoreShamima case shows terrible prejudice
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.
Read MoreGWS at XR’s The Big One, 4 days of action in Central London
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…
Read MoreTODAY Join the Haiti Action Committee for a Day of Action in Solidarity with the Haitian People, thursday 27 April.
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…
Read MoreEvent this Friday – Join the Women’s Speak Out at XR’s The Big One
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…
Read MoreSelma James’ message to Mumia, after news of the terrible Lucretia Clemons judgment that denied his latest appeal for legal redress.
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…
Read MoreAlabama: Power to prisoners & supporters on both sides of the wall
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…
Read More












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