Selma James

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Selma James
James in 2012
Born
Selma Deitch

(1930-08-15) August 15, 1930
New York City, US
Other nameSelma Weinstein
OccupationsWriter, activist
Years active1952–present
Known forCo-founder of International Wages for Housework Campaign
Notable workThe Power of Women and the Subversion of the Community (1972);
Sex, Race and Class (1974)
Spouse
​
​
(m. 1956; div. 1980)​
Children1 son
Websiteglobalwomenstrike.net

Selma James (born Selma Deitch; formerly Weinstein; August 15, 1930) is an American writer, feminist, and social activist who is co-author of the women's movement book The Power of Women and the Subversion of the Community (with Mariarosa Dalla Costa), co-founder of the International Wages for Housework Campaign, and coordinator of the Global Women's Strike.[1]

Early life and activism

Deitch[2] was born in the Brownsville neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York, in 1930.[3] She was raised in a Jewish household[4] and her father was a truck driver while her mother had been a factory worker prior to having children.[3] As a young woman, Deitch worked in factories, and then as a full-time housewife and mother to her son,[5] Sam, with whose father, a fellow factory worker, she was in a short-lived marriage.[2] At the age of 15, she had joined the Johnson–Forest Tendency, one of whose three leaders was C. L. R. James, and she began to attend his classes on slavery and the American civil war.[2]

In 1952, she wrote the book A Woman's Place, first published as a column in Correspondence, a working-class newspaper.[6][7] She was a regular columnist and edited the women's page. In 1955, she went to England to marry C. L. R. James, who had been deported from the United States during the McCarthy period. They were together for 25 years, and were close political colleagues.[8]

From 1958 to 1962, she lived in Trinidad and Tobago, where, with her husband, she was active in the movement for West Indian independence and federation.[9][10] Returning to Britain after independence, she became the first organising secretary of the Campaign Against Racial Discrimination in 1965, and a founding member of the Black Regional Action Movement and editor of its journal in 1969.[11]

Wages for Housework

In January 1971, James made a BBC Radio broadcast in the series People for Tomorrow—using her own experience of working in low-paid jobs and being a mother and housewife, as well as interviews with full-time housewives, and other women working outside the home while still doing most of the household chores—to explore the exploitation of women in society in general.[12] In 1972, the publication The Power of Women and the Subversion of the Community (co-authored with Mariarosa Dalla Costa) launched the "domestic labour debate"[13] by spelling out how housework and other care work women do outside of the market produces the whole working class, and thus how the market economy is built on women's unwaged work.[14][10]

That same year, James founded the International Wages for Housework Campaign (IWFHC), which demands money from the state for unwaged work in the home and in the community.[15] A public debate followed about whether caring full-time was work and whether it should be compensated with a wage. James's 1972 paper Women, the Unions and Work was presented at the National Conference of Women on March 25–26, 1972.[16] In a 2002 interview with BBC News 24 she stated that housework counted for "basic work in society," that women are entitled to a wage, and that "we want the acknowledgement from society that the work we are doing is fundamental and important."[17]

James was the first spokesperson of the English Collective of Prostitutes,[18][14] which campaigns for decriminalisation as well as viable economic alternatives to prostitution. The 1983 publication of James's Marx and Feminism broke with established Marxist theory by providing a reading of Marx's Capital from the point of view of women and of unwaged work.[19] Beginning in 1985, she helped found the International Women Count Network, which succeeded in winning the UN decision directing governments to measure and value unwaged work in national statistics.[20][10]

Later activity

James lectures in the United Kingdom, the United States, and other countries on a wide range of topics.[21][22]

Feminist activism

Since 2000, James has been international coordinator of the Global Women's Strike, a grassroots network of women. The strike demands that society "Invest in Caring Not Killing" and that military budgets be returned to the community, starting with women.[23][24][5] She has been working with the Venezuelan Revolution since 2002.[25] She is a founder of the Crossroads Women's Centre, begun under the WFH auspices in 1975[26] in a red-light district near London's Euston railway station and now located in Kentish Town.[1][2][27] She is general editor of Crossroads Books.

Socialist activism

In April 2008, James visited Edinburgh (along with Ralph and Noreen Ibbott, members of the Britain Tanzania Society in the 1960s) on the anniversary of Tanzania Muungano Day, which falls on April 26. James gave a talk in a session hosted by the Tanzania Edinburgh Community Association (TzECA) on Julius Nyerere's ujamaa in the 1960s in Tanzania. The session took place at Waverley Care Solas.

In July 2015, James endorsed Jeremy Corbyn's campaign in the Labour Party leadership election.[28]

Anti-Zionist activism

James is a founder member of the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network[1] and, in May 2008, signed the Letter of British Jews published in The Guardian explaining why they would not celebrate the 60th anniversary of Israel's founding.[29] In August 2015, she was a signatory to a letter criticising The Jewish Chronicle's reporting of Jeremy Corbyn's association with alleged antisemites.[30]

Notable works

  • A Woman's Place (1952)[10][31]
  • The Power of Women & the Subversion of the Community (with Mariarosa Dalla Costa; Bristol: Falling Wall Press, 1972)[10]
  • Women, the Unions and Work, or What Is Not To Be Done (Notting Hill Women's Liberation Workshop, 1972)[32]
  • Sex, Race & Class (Race Today, 1974)[14][33]
  • The Rapist Who Pays the Rent (with Ruth Hall and Judit Kertesz, 1982)
  • Marx and Feminism (1984)[34]
  • Hookers in the House of the Lord (1983)
  • The Ladies and the Mammies: Jane Austen and Jean Rhys (Falling Wall Press, 1983, ISBN 978-0905046259)
  • Strangers & Sisters: Women, Race and Immigration (as editor; Falling Wall Press, 1985, ISBN 978-0905046297)
  • The Global Kitchen: The Case for Counting Unwaged Work (1985)
  • The Milk of Human Kindness: Defending Breastfeeding from the Global Market and the AIDS Industry (with Solveig Francis, Phoebe Jones Schellenberg, and Nina Lopez-Jones; Crossroads Books, 2003, ISBN 978-0954437206)
  • "Introduction" in Creating a Caring Economy: Nora Castañeda & the Women's Development Bank of Venezuela (Crossroads Books, 2006, ISBN 978-0954437220)
  • "Introduction" in The Arusha Declaration, Rediscovering Nyerere's Tanzania (2007)
  • "Introduction" in Jailhouse Lawyers: Prisoners Defending Prisoners v. the USA by Mumia Abu-Jamal (UK edition, Crossroads Books, 2011)
  • Sex, Race and Class—the Perspective of Winning: A Selection of Writings 1952–2011 (PM Press, 2012, ISBN 978-1604864540)
  • Our Time Is Now: Sex, Race, Class, and Caring for People and Planet (PM Press, 2021, ISBN 978-1-62963-838-6)[35]

James appeared briefly in Steve McQueen's 2020 film retelling of the Mangrove Nine trial, entitled Mangrove, which formed part of McQueen's Small Axe anthology.[36] James was portrayed by actress Jodhi May.[37]

James was featured in How the Mangrove Nine Won, a film also released in 2020 giving first-hand accounts of the Mangrove Nine trial.[38]

References

  1. "Selma James 80 on 15 August this year". Global Women's Strike. Archived from the original on 2017-03-07. Retrieved 2026-06-16.
  2. Gardiner, Becky (2012-06-08). "A life in writing: Selma James". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2026-06-16.
  3. "VIDEO: 'Sex, Race and Class' — Extended Interview with Selma James on Her Six Decades of Activism". Democracy Now!. April 18, 2012. Retrieved June 8, 2020.
  4. Dixon, Gabrielle (22 August 2021). ""Find People That Challenge You": Life Lessons To Be Learned From A 91-Year-Old Activist". Refinery29. Retrieved 13 December 2023.
  5. "The way I work: Selma James". Big Issue North. May 9, 2016.
  6. "Selma James". PM Press. Archived from the original on July 31, 2018.
  7. Dalla Costa, Mariarosa; James, Selma (November 23, 2005). "The power of women and the subversion of the community". libcom.org. Retrieved February 27, 2018.
  8. "Housework as Work: Selma James on Unwaged Labor and Decades-Long Struggle to Pay Housewives". Democracy Now!. April 16, 2012. Retrieved February 27, 2018.
  9. Renton, Dave (2007). C L R James: Cricket's Philosopher King. London: Haus Books. ISBN 978-1905791019.
  10. James, Selma; Augustin, Ron (September 2019). "Beyond Boundaries". Monthly Review. 71 (4): 51–66. doi:10.14452/MR-071-04-2019-08_6. ISSN 0027-0520.
  11. Bunce, Robin; Paul Field (January 7, 2014). "Mangrove 9: Darcus Howe and the extraordinary campaign to expose racism in the police". New Statesman. Retrieved February 27, 2018.
  12. "Selma James: Our Time Is Coming Now". People for Tomorrow. BBC. January 21, 1971.
  13. "Women and the Subversion of the Community". PM Press UK. Retrieved 2026-06-16.
  14. James, Selma; Valle, Camila (11 January 2021). "'Real Theory Is in What You Do and How You Do It'". Verso. Retrieved 2026-06-16.
  15. James, Selma (March 8, 2020). "I founded the Wages for Housework campaign in 1972 – and women are still working for free". The Independent.
  16. "Women's Liberation: Critical Notes on Selma James' Pamphlet". Marxist-Leninist Quarterly (5). Summer 1973. Retrieved August 3, 2020 – via Encyclopedia of Anti-Revisionism On-Line.
  17. "Housework 'worth' £700bn". BBC News. April 22, 2002.
  18. "The Guardian: Profile of our first spokeswoman, Selma James". English Collective of Prostitutes. 2012-06-08. Retrieved 2026-06-16.
  19. "Notes from the Editors". Monthly Review. September 2019. doi:10.14452/MR-071-04-2019-08_0. ISSN 0027-0520.
  20. "Fourth World Conference on Women, Beijing 1995". Un.org. December 31, 2003. Retrieved February 11, 2016.
  21. "Selma James speaks on Sex, Race and Class at Occupy LSX". Global Women's Strike. Archived from the original on 2016-08-28.
  22. "Selma James speaking tour". Global Women's Strike. Archived from the original on 2016-08-28.
  23. "Selma James". PM Press. Retrieved 2026-06-16.
  24. Pasvankias, Stephanie (2022-01-20). "60 Years of Intersectional Feminism: An Interview with Selma James". PM Press. Retrieved 2026-06-16.
  25. James, Selma (August 13, 2004). "Selma James: An antidote for apathy | Politics". The Guardian. Retrieved February 11, 2016.
  26. James, Selma (March 7, 2020). "The crucial work that women do is often overlooked". Morning Star.
  27. Ganguly, Manisha (January 21, 2017). "The Struggle Keeps You Going: Selma James". The Wire.
  28. Bush, Stephen (July 29, 2015). "25 campaign groups and activists back Jeremy Corbyn for Labour leader". New Statesman. Retrieved July 15, 2017.
  29. "We're not celebrating Israel's anniversary". The Guardian. 2008-04-30. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2026-06-16.
  30. Dysch, Marcus (2015-08-18). "Anti-Israel activists attack JC for challenging Jeremy Corbyn". The Jewish Chronicle. Retrieved 2026-06-16.
  31. Pasvankias, Stephanie (2022-04-05). "Selma James (Kentish Town)". PM Press. Retrieved 2026-06-16.
  32. "Women, the unions and work, or… what is not to be done - Selma James". libcom.org. Retrieved 2026-06-16.
  33. "Sex, race and class - Selma James". libcom.org. Retrieved 2026-06-16.
  34. Marx And Feminism - Selma James.
  35. "Our Time Is Now: Sex, Race, Class, and Caring for People and Planet". Crossroads | Books & Films. Retrieved 20 July 2021.
  36. Volpe, Sam (December 10, 2020). "Camden civil rights activist Selma James remembers 'crucial' Mangrove 9 trial". Hampstead and Highgate Express. Retrieved April 20, 2022.
  37. Andrews, Kehinde (December 2020). "SMALL AXE | Mangrove". Sight & Sounds. BFI. Retrieved April 20, 2022.
  38. Weatherby, Bronwen (December 4, 2020). "Mangrove Nine: justice in the dock". Camden New Journal. Retrieved April 20, 2022.

Further reading

  1. Hendrix, Kathleen (1987-05-07). "Waging the War Over Wages : Fight for Homemaker Pay Has Seen Ups, Downs". Los Angeles Times.