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

Women of Colour to the Chakrabati Inquiry on Racism in the UK

4th August 2016

We thought you might be interested in our statement which has been submitted to the Chakrabarti Inquiry“into antisemitism and other forms of racism including islamophobia, within the Labour party”. We would be glad for any feedback. We are also circulating the highly recommended submission from International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network UK, titled “An anti-racist movement versus…

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‘Evidence Against the Witch-Hunt, and the Racism that is Hidden by it’

4th August 2016

“we do not believe that Labour is rife with antisemitism and weare outraged that antisemitism is being used to undermine the new anti-austerity,anti-racist and anti-imperialist Labour leadership. Below is evidence against thewitch-hunt, and of the racism in the UK which is hidden by it.” This is the submission from the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network (IJAN)…

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Security Forces and Corbyn: Guardian Letter

4th August 2016

The following is a letter written to the Guardian, in response to an interview with Unite leader, Len McCluskey: Len McCluskey says that the security forces are “involved in dark practices” to discredit Jeremy Corbyn (Len McCluskey: intelligence services using ‘dark practices’ against Corbyn, 23 July, andhttps://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/jul/25/len-mccluskey-adds-context-to-his-comments-on-mi5). McCluskey has been in politics long enough to…

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Bernie’s Movement – Global Women’s Strike in NYT

3rd August 2016

On Tuesday, Ms. Grover invited me to a women’s speak-out event at a church downtown that was organized by the social justice group Global Women’s Strike. The event’s attendees skewed older and much more local than the protest on Monday did. Here were people invested in the unglamorous work of coalition building — activists on…

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Resistance to USA’s Drone Assassination Programme

20th January 2016

On 19 January, anti-drone grandmother Mary Anne Grady Flores was convicted to 6 months in jail.  Her conviction sprang from her protest at Hancock Air National Guard Base (New York state) in 2013. Earlier this year, former drone operators blew the whistle on the US drone programme and wrote a collective letter to President Obama.…

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Work of Carers Sorely Needed

1st December 2015

An article on the struggle to care in the face of austerity, written by Becka Seglow Hudson of the Global Women’s Strike was responded to last week in a letter, penned by care assistant in an elderly people’s home, Kate Thompson. ”I see examples of excellent care, small acts of kindness, compassionate treatment of those we…

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Women of Colour Often Ignored in the Fight Against Rape

25th November 2015

Does UN Women’s figure of ‘one in three women have experienced physical or sexual violence’ include the majority of women and girls in the world who are of colour and grassroots, and the millions risking their lives to flee war? From the Democratic Republic of Congo to Haiti, from Iraq to Uganda, from India to Peru,…

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Our Conference in the Morning Star

20th November 2015

Between panels that regularly provoked tears, belly-laughs, chants and standing ovations from the audience, hundreds of buzzing chats took place. Becka Seglow Hudson reports on our international conference for the Morning Star. The opening panel of the conference, with Selma James and Professor Alison Wolf discussing class, care, and the women’s movement, is available to…

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The Political Case for Caring Inside the Academy

19th November 2015

“Academic institutions are not built for caring” Writes Aliya Yule, volunteer with Women of Colour in the Global Women Strike and Black Women’s Rape Action Project in a piece published both on Media Diversified and the Ain’t I A Woman Collective website. Aliya, who is taking time off from studying at Oxford University, describes the uncaring…

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Women Carers Fighting for the Right to not be Impoverished and Overworked

19th November 2015

“Women face a dilemma. If we do the caring, men do not become carers with us but consumers of the care we provide. And if we refuse to care, those who need care suffer neglect and worse.” Selma James, coordinator of the Global Women’s Strike had an article published in Open Democracy this week, reviewing…

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