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Sex, Race, And Class: The Perspective of Winning
In 1972 Selma James set out a new political perspective. Her starting point was the millions of unwaged women who, working in the home and on the land, were not seen as workers and whose struggles were viewed as outside of capitalism. For James, the class struggle presents itself as the conflict between the reproduction and survival of the human race, and the dictatorship of the market with its exploitation, wars, and ecological devastation. She sums up her strategy for change as Invest in Caring Not Killing. It includes excerpts from the classic The Power of Women and the Subversion of the Community which launched the domestic labor debate, Hookers in the House of the Lord which describes a church occupation by sex workers, an incisive review of the C.L.R. James masterpiece The Black Jacobins, a reappraisal of the novels of Jean Rhys and of the leadership of Julius Nyerere, the groundbreaking Marx and Feminism and more. The writing is lucid and without jargon. The ideas, never abstract, spring from trying to make sense of successes and setbacks, and the need to find a way forward.
296 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2012
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
November 6, 2015
Sex, Race, and Class is a collection of articles, essays and speeches by anticapitalist Selma James. Her feminism is strengthened by her deep commitment to intersectionality, always contextualized in a framework that includes capitalism, imperialism, racism, and all forms of oppression and never divorced from her insightful class analysis.
Her writing is concise and accessible. She patiently walks the reader through complex ideas point by point using clear and simple language that makes the ideas easy to understand. She applies the thoughts and writings of Marx to modern day capitalism and revolutionary struggles against it in clarifying ways. She is careful not to represent Marxism, pointing out with humor that being a Marxist is different from using tools that Marx provided.
The pieces highlight the theory and praxis of the working class-- waged and unwaged, particularly working class women. On this journey we learn about the Wages for Housework campaign, but also learn about CLR James and the Johnson Forest tendency; the struggles of sex workers; struggles in Venezuela, Haiti and Tanzania; and Mumia Abu-Jamal's work with jailhouse lawyers.
Most importantly, to me, is her militant and insightful analysis of capitalism's exploitation of all workers, waged and unwaged. She uses Marx's dissection of capitalism as a tool to support current struggles against it.
Her writing is concise and accessible. She patiently walks the reader through complex ideas point by point using clear and simple language that makes the ideas easy to understand. She applies the thoughts and writings of Marx to modern day capitalism and revolutionary struggles against it in clarifying ways. She is careful not to represent Marxism, pointing out with humor that being a Marxist is different from using tools that Marx provided.
The pieces highlight the theory and praxis of the working class-- waged and unwaged, particularly working class women. On this journey we learn about the Wages for Housework campaign, but also learn about CLR James and the Johnson Forest tendency; the struggles of sex workers; struggles in Venezuela, Haiti and Tanzania; and Mumia Abu-Jamal's work with jailhouse lawyers.
Most importantly, to me, is her militant and insightful analysis of capitalism's exploitation of all workers, waged and unwaged. She uses Marx's dissection of capitalism as a tool to support current struggles against it.
June 24, 2008
A very interesting pamphlet, that says a lot in a very short while. I found particularly interesting her analysis of culture. She links identity and cultural practice very tightly to capital ("identity... is the very substance of class"), sort of a hard structuralist analysis I think. It seems to be quite close to Perlman's analysis of capitalism as a social reality reproduced through the actions of people (in the Reproduction of Daily Life).
As a feminist position, it's markedly different to the Martha Acklesburg position of women's oppression being created both by capitalism and by broader cultural factors. I find James' position probably more convincing, but as with all structuralist positions, somewhat disempowering when one considers forms of resistance. Anyway, a great pamphlet, I'll have to read 'The Power of Women...' soonish.
As a feminist position, it's markedly different to the Martha Acklesburg position of women's oppression being created both by capitalism and by broader cultural factors. I find James' position probably more convincing, but as with all structuralist positions, somewhat disempowering when one considers forms of resistance. Anyway, a great pamphlet, I'll have to read 'The Power of Women...' soonish.
December 19, 2014
This is a collection of essays by Selma James, a Marxist, revolutionary, and free-thinker that covers many of the deep points she is concerned with, primarily the emancipation of women from a subservient class providing free labour in the home to raise children that will go off to work in the support of Capital.
James writes with astounding clarity without resorting to rhetoric. The words are words for everyone, not an elite or a jargon-infused collective. It is part of eschewing such words that in fact sets her concepts quite apart from the traditional oppressive groups, painting them in a stark contrast with the goals of equality, justice, and redistribution of control of production to those who produce.
My daughter told me about this book, as part of her studies, and I've thoroughly enjoyed it.
James writes with astounding clarity without resorting to rhetoric. The words are words for everyone, not an elite or a jargon-infused collective. It is part of eschewing such words that in fact sets her concepts quite apart from the traditional oppressive groups, painting them in a stark contrast with the goals of equality, justice, and redistribution of control of production to those who produce.
My daughter told me about this book, as part of her studies, and I've thoroughly enjoyed it.
March 25, 2017
One of the most important assertions made in this short piece, is that class struggle also manifests in the reproduction of everyday life. I don't think many Marxists deny this, but in my experience, they tend to place more of an emphasis, or even concern themselves with class struggle at the point of production. Marxists aren't the only ones who do this though, there are also strong tendencies of this sort in the IWW (of which I am a member). James claims that "the lifestyle unique to themselves which a people develop once they are enmeshed in capitalism, in response to and in rebellion against, can't be understood at all except as the totality of their capitalist lives,". Racism and sexism push people to fulfill certain expectations and social roles which then translate into acquired capabilities that then determine their lives, and is consequently understood by others as their "human nature". All these factors contribute to an international division of labor: "The social power relations of the sexes, races, nations, and generations are precisely, then, particularized forms of class relations".
She claims that focusing on class struggle at the point of production is inherently limiting because it ignores unwaged labor, such as house work, which enable the working class to socially reproduce itself for another day at work and/or to produce new human bodies to sacrifice upon the altar of exploitative wage labor.
Another assertion made in Sex, Race and Class is that people do not have to be at work to resist/subvert capitalism. She uses examples of the Black peoples' movement and riots of the 1970's and the women's movement to illustrate moments in which the class doesn't confine itself to the walls of the workplace. More importantly, James critiques existing "working class institutions" like trade unions which actually divide us as a class just as much as the capitalist mode of production, and Leninist parties which are only one section of the class and thus can't possibly express the experiences and interests of another section.
Based on the experience of these the Black peoples' and women's' movements, she says: "In order for the working class to unite in spite of the divisions which are inherent in its very structure- factory v. plantation v. home v schools-those at the lowest levels of the hierarchy must themselves find the key to their weakness, must themselves find the strategy which will attack that point and shatter it, must themselves find their own mode of struggle".
"Nothing unified and revolutionary will be formed until each section of the exploited will have made its own autonomous power felt".
She claims that focusing on class struggle at the point of production is inherently limiting because it ignores unwaged labor, such as house work, which enable the working class to socially reproduce itself for another day at work and/or to produce new human bodies to sacrifice upon the altar of exploitative wage labor.
Another assertion made in Sex, Race and Class is that people do not have to be at work to resist/subvert capitalism. She uses examples of the Black peoples' movement and riots of the 1970's and the women's movement to illustrate moments in which the class doesn't confine itself to the walls of the workplace. More importantly, James critiques existing "working class institutions" like trade unions which actually divide us as a class just as much as the capitalist mode of production, and Leninist parties which are only one section of the class and thus can't possibly express the experiences and interests of another section.
Based on the experience of these the Black peoples' and women's' movements, she says: "In order for the working class to unite in spite of the divisions which are inherent in its very structure- factory v. plantation v. home v schools-those at the lowest levels of the hierarchy must themselves find the key to their weakness, must themselves find the strategy which will attack that point and shatter it, must themselves find their own mode of struggle".
"Nothing unified and revolutionary will be formed until each section of the exploited will have made its own autonomous power felt".
September 10, 2018
It was ~3 stars until "Marx & Feminism," then 5. The "UN Decade for Women" & "Milk of Human Kindness" bring it down to 4.
July 31, 2022
Around 2017, I came across this book. This was my first encounter with feminism. This is a really good one that I would encourage everyone to read.
February 26, 2023
TFW you read a book and it awakens your inner Marxist. BRB, time to (re)read Das Kapital.
Power to the sisters and therefore to the class indeed!
Power to the sisters and therefore to the class indeed!
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January 8, 2013Wow, what a lot to think about! So much so that I wrote 2 book reviews. One is on-line here: http://www.newclearvision.com/2012/12...
If you want to read the other, you'll have to pick up the upcoming Race issue of HipMama magazine.
If you want to read the other, you'll have to pick up the upcoming Race issue of HipMama magazine.
September 19, 2016
Captivating and trully informative on the fight of black people against slavery. I found it really helpful that Selma James focused on the lives of black women and the way white women and especially Sufragettes responded to slavery. It was really enlightening for me and made me want to search deeper into the issues of intersectional feminism and motherhood.
October 9, 2011
Marxist feminist primer. Short, classic, pretty necessary. Wages for Housework. "Power to the sisters and therefore to the class."
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November 15, 2013331.4 J291 2012
September 12, 2015
4 out of 5 stars for an incisive account re the political, social and economical architecture of race, class and, particularly, on gender.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews