Tribune Magazine: Anti-Capitalist Feminism with Selma James

At 95, Selma James is a voice from another world. Born to working-class Jewish parents in Brooklyn, she married the Caribbean revolutionary CLR James and shared his anti-colonial, libertarian Marxism. She was a founder of the Wages for Housework campaign in the 1970s, and remains active with Global Women’s Strike, the Crossroads Women’s Centre in north London and the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network. In conversation with Barnaby Raine and her son Sam Weinstein, she recalls her influences — from Trinidad to Tanzania to Italian feminism — and her anti-state, anti-work, anti-vanguardist conception of socialism. We offer this interview as part of the historical record of a tradition on the left. This is episode 3 of postscript, reflecting on the future of the left after the passing of twentieth century assumptions.

You can find all episodes here:    • postscript  

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Chapters: 00:00 – 01:03 Introduction 01:04 – 04:37 Childhood 04:38 – 09:05 Meeting CLR James 09:06 – 13:26 Trinidad and London 13:27 – 15:29 Jamesianism 15:30 – 19:14 A Woman’s Place 19:15 – 20:07 The Second Sex 20:08 – 23:12 Against work 23:13 – 24:10 Middle class feminism 24:11 – 30:17 Wages for Housework 30:18 – 33:35 Against the state 33:36 – 35:19 Vietnam 35:20 – 39:56 Tanzania 39:57 – 47:55 Working class unity 47:56 – 49:49 Free time 49:50 – 51:09 AI 51:10 – 51:52 Palestine Action 51:51 – 55:00 Jewish Anti-Zionism 55:01 – 58:23 Organising strategies 58:24 – 1:00:35 Marx 1:00:36 – 1:03:56 Hope