Selma James
Selma James is an antisexist, antiracist campaigner. In 1972 she put forward Wages for Housework (WFH) as a demand and a political perspective that redefined the working class. The International WFH Campaign she founded coordinates the Global Women’s Strike. She coined the word “unwaged,” which incorporates all workers without wages. She co-authored the classic The Power of Women and the Subversion of the Community and is the author of Sex, Race and Class and other pathbreaking writing.
Global Women's Strike
The Global Women’s Strike and Women of Colour GWS, which have campaigned for financial recognition for unwaged caring work for decades, contributed to the Green New Deal for Europe and jointly called on governments everywhere to provide a Care Income, starting now. As mothers, carers, farmers/farm workers, land and human rights’ defenders, women do most of the work of feeding (starting with breastfeeding) and protecting families and communities, the soil and the environment.
Wages for Housework
Wages for Housework begins with those of us with least power internationally – unwaged workers in the home (mothers, housewives, domestic workers denied pay), and unwaged workers on the land and in the community.
Wages for Housework is a demand, it is also a perspective, a way of organising from the bottom up, of autonomous sectors working together to end the power relations among us.
We are part of a global collective of a number of autonomous organisations within the Global Women’s Strike. Each has its own constituency and campaigns, each can count on the collective power of all.
In 2022, the International Wages for Housework Campaign, which co-ordinates the Global Women’s Strike, celebrated its golden anniversary. We held a series of events and launched our 1972-2022 archives at the Bishopsgate Institute.
Caring for the land: A natural farming movement in Andhra Pradesh in India, spearheaded by women’s self-help groups is regenerating the soil, and if widely practised, can help stop global warming and even be key to reversing it.
Our recent news >>>
Día Internacional de la Mujer Acto para Juntar Fondos En Apoyo de Mujeres y Niñes Palestinas/os
Este Día Internacional de la Mujer, nosotras estamos en en solidaridad con mujeres, niñes y familias Palestinas en contra del genocidio llevado por Israel y EE.UU, incluyendo el bombardeo de Palestina y la hambruna causada. Acto para Juntar Fondos En Apoyo de Mujeres y Niñes Palestinas/os Estamos juntando fondos para la organización Alianza del Medio…
Read MoreInternational Women’s Day fundraiser to support Palestinian women & children, Sunday March 10
This International Women’s Day, we stand with Palestinian women, children, and their families against the Israel/US genocide including bombing and starvation.
Online fundraiser for Palestinian Women and Children
All proceeds to Middle Eastern Children’s Alliance (MECA) who are organizing food & other direct support in Gaza.
Sunday March 10, 1 PM PST / 4 PM EST
Read MoreWe denounce the gay Israeli Defense’s (IDF) soldiers
We denounce the gay Israeli Defense Force’s (IDF) soldiers in this article https://www.jta.org/…/israeli-lgbtq-soldiers-hope-the… and all vicious Israeli pinkwashing. There is No Pride in the Slaughter of Others! Palestinian people in Gaza being bombed, starved, and denied all human rights, will not care if the IDF soldiers killing them and their loved ones are gay or…
Read MoreCongress: Don’t exclude the most vulnerable children from the Child Tax Credit!
URGENT! Please ask Congressional leadership and your reps to make critical improvements to the Child Tax Credit (CTC) in the Tax Relief for American Families and Workers Act of 2024, the bi-partisan bill now under consideration. ⚡ Also call and tweet your members of Congress and Congressional leadership, see below While there are some positive…
Read MoreTweets: Congress, don’t exclude the most vulnerable children from the Child Tax Credit!
URGENT: Tax Relief for American Families & Workers Act is being voted on as soon as week of Jan 29. Tell Congressional leaders & your reps to strengthen it to include covering the poorest children in #ChildTaxCredit. ✍ https://actionnetwork.org/letters/congress-dont-exclude-the-most-vulnerable-children-from-the-child-tax-credit/ URGENT! @RepJeffries @SpeakerJohnson @SenSchumer @LeaderMcConnell don’t leave the poorest, most vulnerable children out of #ChildTaxCredit. The…
Read MoreWatch our workshop with our sisters from Andhra Pradesh Community Managed Natural Farming
Speakers: Meerabi Chunduru, Swati Renduchintala, Vijay Kumar, Selma James. Chair: Jyoti Fernandes In the last 20 years, in Andhra Pradesh, India, grassroots women in a secular movement of self-help groups are collectively transforming the food they grow, their families’ health, and increasing their income. They are the largest transition to agroecology in the world, simultaneously…
Read MoreWe were shocked and saddened by the sudden death of Benjamin Zephaniah
Benjamin was an old friend of the Wages for Housework Campaign/ Global Women’s Strike since our centre’s early days in a King’s Cross squat. The last time we had the pleasure to see him was in October 2022 at the 40th anniversary of the English Collective of Prostitutes occupation of the Holy Cross Church against…
Read MoreThe compromise Tax Relief for American Families and Workers Act of 2024 leaves out the most impoverished families while giving big tax benefits to corporations
We are mothers, grandmothers and other unpaid family caregivers who have been pressing for reinstatement of the expanded child tax credit (CTC) and for our caregiving work to be valued and supported. We recognize and appreciate the effort that went into this bi-partisan proposal, but it must not exclude the most impoverished children. Representative DeLauro,…
Read More4 Jan: Women Feed the World – Oxford Real Farming Conference
Dear friends, Join our online workshop with our sisters from Andhra Pradesh Community Managed Natural Farming at the Oxford Real Farming Conference on 4 January 2024, where they are speaking in person about their world-changing work – info below. Register and please choose the free bursary ticket option here https://orfc.org.uk/book-orfc-2024-tickets/. This also gives access to…
Read More