Selma James -International coordinator of the Global Women's Strike from London, England and one of the producers of the film "Talking of Power: Sex, race & class in revolutionary Venezuela, From the hills of Caracas to the banks of the Orinoco, the grassroots tell us how they are changing our world"- will be for the first time in the Portland area and will speak about women and the Bolivarian revolution in Venezuela at
In Other Words Women's Books and Resources
8 NE Killingsworth St.
Tuesday June 20th, 7 pm
Featuring Video clips from Talking of Power
"A solid & exciting documentary that offers a glimpse of new ways of re-making the world & women's role at the heart of it." Rod Stoneman, Huston School of Film, Galway, Ireland. Produced by the Global Women's Strike www.globalwomenstrike.net. Directed by Nina López. Spanish with English subtitles. 62 min.
Selma James - internationally renowned activist, author, strategist and critical thinker - has been to Venezuela four times and was an International Observer on behalf of the National Electoral Council in the 2004 national referendum, which resulted in a landslide victory for President Hugo Chávez. She was a main organizer of the highly successful 2004 US speaking tour of Nora Castańeda, President of Venezuela's Women's Development Bank.
Selma James's many publications include the 1972 feminist classic The Power of Women and Subversion of the Community, translated into Italian, French, Japanese and Spanish, and credited with launching the international domestic labor debate on the economic value of housework. Widow of CLR James (The Black Jacobins, etc.), she is founder in 1972 of the International Wages for Housework Campaign.
Sponsored by :
The Portland Central America Solidarity Committee (PCASC)
In Other Words Women's Books and Resources
The Global Women's Strike
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e-mail: 
homepage: 
phone: 503 236-7916
address: PCASC lives at 616 E. Burnside, PDX
However, calling Selma James "the widow" of CLR James is a little bit of an injustice to both of them. It would be more accurate to refer to her as the third wife, if you want to use such terms.
But, as both of them would probably jump up to state, Selma James is a thinker and political activist in her own right. She doesn't need to be linked to CLR James, except insofar as they were co-workers in various political organizations.
Second, they have not been 'together' for decades. Whatever their personal arrangements, none of CLR James' biographers linked the two in marriage by the time of CLR's death in 1989.
And, certainly, the two had split politically. Selma James' 1972 work The Power of Women is a clear break from CLR's line of thought.
So go see her. But respect her work, not who she was once married to, brilliant as he might have been.