Our Time Is Now: Sex, Race, Class, and Caring for People and Planet

257 Pages·2021·42.5 MB·English

by  Selma James, Nina Lopez (editor)

What people have said about Selma James
“One of the most important figures in the new way of thinking in the 1970s and
1980s was Selma James. James’s Marx and Feminism deserves to be considered
one of the great feminist contributions to Marxist thought . . . not so much a
rupture with Marxism as its necessary extension.”
—Monthly Review
“An intellectually ambitious attempt to synthesize Marxism, feminism, and
post-colonialism, not with the usual sellotaped hyphenations.”
—Jenny Turner, London Review of Books
“Selma James is a treasure . . . one of the key political thinkers and activists of
our times.”
—Marcus Rediker, author of The Slave Ship (Penguin Books, 2008)
“In an era where women are encouraged to ‘lean in’ to capitalism and power, Sex,
Race, and Class provides a much-needed reminder that housework and care
work are work—and deserve to be recognized and compensated as such. James
not only details women’s campaigns that might otherwise be forgotten but
provides a valuable blueprint for organizing towards a truly liberated society.”
—Victoria Law, author of Resistance Behind Bars: The Struggles of Incarcerated Women
(PM Press, 2012)
“When Selma James speaks, I listen. When she writes, I read. She has been
a crucial part of my re-education for decades. She is one of the few public
intellectuals who engages with issues and people all over the world yet still
remains connected to the grassroots. The writings and ideas of Selma James
are as relevant now as they have ever been. Her solidarity knows no borders,
her compassion excludes no sufferer.”
—Benjamin Zephaniah, poet, writer, lyricist, musician, and naughty boy
“Building from the brilliance of Sex, Race, and Class, this work powerfully
addresses the recent and present struggles of those whose labour of caring
protects the future. This is about how grassroots movements can challenge
power, and change the world.”
—Bonita Lawrence, Indigenous Studies, York University, Canada
“Since A Woman’s Place (1952), Selma James has been giving us unique insights
into the meaning of autonomy and the political potential of care work. This
new anthology illuminates the significance of James’s work for a revolution-
ary climate politics. A true gift from one of the most brilliant minds of our
time.”
—Stefania Barca, author of Forces of Reproduction (Cambridge University Press, 2020)
“Selma James is a force of nature in the flesh and on the page. She fearlessly
grapples with complex ideas, but her writing remains crystal clear and com-
pelling. Stop what you are doing and read her now!”
—Maya Oppenheim, women’s correspondent, the Independent, UK
“Selma James’s prose, at once theoretical and inspirational, has provided a
renewed praxis to consider and work with. . . [P]utting motherhood on the
political agenda rather than women in boardrooms made her politics at once
meaningful and important.”
—Amrita Shodhan, feministsindia.com
“Selma James is a living icon. Her groundbreaking Wages for Housework
Campaign informs decades of feminist thought and activism. James’s writ-
ings are needed now more than ever.”
—Kristin Lawless, author of Formerly Known as Food (St. Martin’s Press, 2018)
“An insightful and exceedingly intelligent political analyst.”
—Dr. Gerald Horne, author of The Dawning of the Apocalypse (Monthly Review Press,
2020)
“Selma James has been living and writing about the intersections of race,
class, and gender since long before the concept of intersectionality was intro-
duced. . . . [Her] book is inspiring because of her ability to write plainly, inci-
sively, and accessibly about complex ideas and complicated political moments.”
—Paul Kivel, author of You Call This a Democracy? (Rowman & Littlefield, 2006)
“Sex, Race, and Class is a must-read for anyone who wants to understand and
change the world from an exploitative culture based on women’s work to one
where we all are valued, and that includes men.”
—Margaretta D’Arcy, Irish Republican, author and playwright, and anti-war
campaigner
“Clarity and commitment to Haiti’s revolutionary legacy. A sister after my
own heart.”
—Danny Glover, actor and activist
“Coming as I did from the working class into academia, Selma James has helped
me to see how an academic can take direction from the grassroots movement
and be useful to it. Her work should be in every library, on every reading list, a
must-read for all of us trying to change the world!”
—Maggie Ronayne, National University of Ireland, Galway, and trade unionist
“Selma James is the champion and philosopher of the revolutionary subject
that is the housewife. Her theory and practice are one.”
—Qalandar Bux Memon, editor, Naked Punch Review
“It’s time to acknowledge James’s pathbreaking analysis: since 1972 she has
reinterpreted the capitalist economy to show that it rests on the usually invis-
ible unwaged caring work of women.”
—Dr. Peggy Antrobus, feminist, author
“Reminds us that liberation cannot be handed down from above. A feminism
that truly matters.”
—Dr. Alissa Trotz, Women & Gender and Caribbean Studies, Toronto
“[R]eflects in concentrated form the history of the new society struggling to
be born. In this respect, Selma James embodies in these essays the spirit of the
revolutionary tradition at its most relevant.”
—Dr. Robert A. Hill, literary executor of the estate of CLR James, University of
California, Los Angeles, and director of the Marcus Garvey Papers Project
“In varied contexts and at many venues, including the UN, James’s output
over six decades shines with radical clarity on the economy, humanity, and
society. . . . Hers is a gift of clarifying often knotty issues in words that people
can grasp.”
—Seth Sandronsky, Z Magazine
“This book is not only an intellectual tour de force, it is the best how to manual
for organizing I have ever read. . . . The staggering breadth of James’s writing
takes your breath away . . . practical how-to feminism from one of the out-
standing thinkers of our time.”
—Cary Gee, Tribune
Our Time Is Now
Sex, Race, Class, and Caring for People and Planet
Selma James
Our Time Is Now: Sex, Race, Class, and Caring for People and Planet
© the respective authors
This edition © 2021 PM Press
All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in critical publications or reviews, no
part of this book may be reproduced, used, or stored in any information retrieval
system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical,
photocopying, recording, or otherwise in any manner without prior written
permission from the publisher.
ISBN: 978–1–62963–838–6 (print)
ISBN: 978–1–62963–854–6 (ebook)
Library of Congress Control Number: 2020934741
Cover by John Yates / www.stealworks.com
Cover photograph © Peter Marshall
Interior design by briandesign
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PM Press
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Printed in the USA.
Contents
IntroductIon Margaret Prescod-From Wages for Housework to a
Care Income (1977–2020)
Houston: Equality Begins with Money (1977) 2
Time Off for Women (1985–1990) 5
Articles in the Media (2012–2020) 15
How Women’s Work Has Been Pushed Up the US Political Agenda
(2012) 16
What if Women Want to Look After Their Children Themselves,
Liz Truss? (2013) 19
From Welfare to Wages, Women Fight Back against the Uncaring
Market (2013) 22
When Women Disappoint (2014) 25
Child Benefit Has Been Changing Lives for 70 Years. Let’s Not
Forget the Woman Behind It (2016) 27
What Women Want 2.0: Equal Pay (2018) 30
Decades After Iceland’s “Day Off,” Our Women’s Strike Is Stronger
Than Ever (2018) 33
The Crucial Work That Women Do Is Often Overlooked (2020) 36
Norway: Equal—At What Price? Working Life and Family Life from an
Ethnic Minority Perspective (2013) 39
France: Housework Must Be Waged—excerpts (2014) 48
What’s a Nice Girl Like You Doing in a Job Like This? A Comparison
between Sex Work and Other Jobs Commonly Done by Women (2019) 57
An Income to Care for People and Planet (2020) with Nina López 60
How Some of Our Network See the Care Income We Are All
Campaigning For (2020) 78
A Care Income Now! (2020) 82
Chávez, Nyerere, Aristide versus Thatcher (2013–2018)
Hugo Chávez Knew That His Revolution Depended on Women (2013)
with Nina López 94
Thatcherism Hasn’t Failed: It Has Infected All Our Politics (2013)
with Nina López 97
Haiti: NGO Crimes Go Far beyond Oxfam (2018) with Sara Callaway,
Nina López, and 17 others 100
Ujamaa: The Hidden Story of Tanzania’s Socialist Villages (2014)
Introduction 104
The Struggle of Prisoners (2014–2020)
Prisoners Celebrate the Power of Their United Struggle (2014) 126
Women Prisoners: Housework Inside (2020) 129
Revisiting the Work of CLR James (2017–2019)
The Black Jacobins, Past and Present (2017) 134
Confronting Imperial Boundaries (2018) 146
Beyond Boundaries—A Talk with Selma James on Her Political
Activities and Years with CLR James (2019) with Ron Augustin 155
The Grassroots Labour Movement That Shook Britain (2015–2020)
Introduction 176
Yvette Cooper Supported Sexist Austerity; Jeremy Corbyn Has Always
Opposed It (2015) with Nina López 178
On Winning with Corbyn (2016) 180
Standing with Palestinians (2018) with Michael Kalmanovitz, Sam
Weinstein, and 102 others 183
We Are in the Midst of an Anti-Left Witch-Hunt (2019) 187
Why the Movement Lost the Election and What Followed (2020)
with Nina López 191
Sex, Race, Class . . . and Autonomy (2020)
The Organizational Strategy of Autonomy 204
Andaiye: The Uses of Autonomy 216
Unlocking the Power of the Movement 220
Index 222
About the Authors 228