Connie's Song

Yesterday when I started out

I knew it all, I had no doubt

Life was there in front of me

Just be who you want to be

Started work way too young

Same as all the blokes

Worked our fingers to the bone

Making do by making jokes

But now I'm older, looking back

It doesn't seem so funny

Same work, same hours

But half the money

It's an age-old story

It's an age-old tale

Still the same old reasons

That are there to make us fail

Second at the table

Picking up the crumbs

Change is always promised

But somehow never comes

I joined the Labour Party

On the shoulders of the great

Emancipated teenager who didn't have time to wait

Fierce, feisty, full of fight

A warrior, a dreamer

30 years on, I am still a union convenor

You all said to me

"Stick with it, we need ya"

What did I achieve?

The grievance procedure

It's an age-old story

It's an age-old tale

Still the same old reasons

That are there to make us fail

Always on the outside

Kicking at the door

It looks like a glass ceiling

From down here on the floor

It's always been a whisper

But can't it be a roar?

All these unheard voices

That won't take no more

Oh, Rita, please wake up

I need you to see

It ain't about the money

It's equality

This doesn't have to be just about C grade (what you mean?)

If we got C grade tomorrow, we still be earning less than a man on C grade

(87 percent, that's not too bad)

Did Martin Luther King ask for 87 percent of right for black people?

(You know they shot him)

(Look, I came here today to get C grade but nothing else)

(I mean I've never had cool pay)

What about your Sharon? (She is six)

And when she's 26, you and her have to be on 87 percent

(She wants to be a doctor)

She could be, nothing changes if it isn't challenged

You could change the story

You could change the tale

Don't fall for all those reasons

That are there to make us fail

We have to make it our time

Why can't our time be now?

Ain't got time for waiting

Rita, make it now