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No Man's Possession

from Vote Nobody by Cosmo

/

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I was born in the east end of London
A seamstress's daughter am I
My father he was a drunkard
Left home when I was but knee high
My mother stayed strong and she raised me
And this is what she used to say
I am no man's possession
No man will 'ere give me away

Now some of you may all it schooling
But that's not the word that I'd use
For low-born women it only
Serves to defile and confuse
The factory floor it was calling
The boss and those games that he'd play
But I am no man's possession
No man shall 'ere give me away

The squalor, disease and the matches
Toiling at Bryant and May
A workforce of women in anger
Way back in 1888
Then Annie Besant said: "To victory!"
The strike did indeed go our way
For we are no man's possessions
No man shall 'ere give us away

My Chalky, he was a right one
Lit me up like a gay Christmas tree
One day he asked me to wed him
Right down on his bended knee
But no god, no not state no nor minister
Sanctioned what we have today
For I am no man's possession
No man shall 'ere give me away

I heard tell of this "Votes for Women"
I laughed till my hair all shook loose
Will you vote for which robber should rob you?
Which hangman, which gibbet, which noose?
Then Sylvia Pankhurst came round here
And to us east enders she'd say
You are no man's possessions
No man shall 'ere give you away

A suffragette's duty it called me
I remember the old "Cat and Mouse"*
We were nabbed after doing the windows
Of some grand lordship's big old house
Those degradations we went through
Bring shame to them all to this day!
But I am no man's possession
No man shall 'ere give me away

Now listen to me all you women
You menfolk, you rich and you poor
You with your learning and letters
You masses on far-distant shores
It's not all votes, wages, conditions
But freedom for all - let me say!
For we are no-one's possessions
No-one shall 'ere give us away!



*http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/the-role-of-british-women-in-the-twentieth-century/cat-and-mouse-act/

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from Vote Nobody, released May 23, 2014

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Cosmo Cardiff, UK

".. a folksinger for our times with a veritable hive of bees in his bonnet..." Rob Adams, Edinburgh Fringe Review.

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