Norman Harding (25 June 1929 – 9 December 2013) was an English trade unionist and tenants' leader who worked for the Workers Revolutionary Party whilst living in London. He published the book, Staying Red: Why I Remain a Socialist, in 2005, which detailed his political activities from 1954 to 1985. Early years Born on 25 June 1929, Harding grew up in Shakespeare Street, Leeds, across from St. James's Hospital. His father was an engineer, but during the 1930s recession, had to take part-time work on the railways. His mother worked in a mill, and Harding remembered that she secured a wage rise for the mill workers by taking the advice of her father, which was to kick the belt off the pulley which powered the looms. His father played piano, singing in public houses to supplement the family's income, but also sang at Leeds Town Hall in a production of Handel's Messiah, and with the Huddersfield Choral Society. In 1935, the Harding family moved to 4 Accommodation Road, Leeds, with the young Harding attending York Road School. After the outbreak of World War II, the family were moved to 93 Poole Crescent, Cross Gates, where his mother obtained the position of managing the small Pendas Way railway station, at Manston, Leeds, which was part of the Leeds/Wetherby Railway route. Her duties included loading and unloading heavy parcels, and releasing homing pigeons from baskets. In 1943, at fourteen years of age, Harding left Cross Gates school, and after various jobs started work as a trimmer at John Barran's clothing factory. National service and politics Harding was called up for National Service after the war, completing his basic training at RAF Padgate, RAF Honiley, Castle Bromwich, and Hereford. He was then sent to Hamburg to serve in the RAF's 5352 Wing at Hamburg's Fuhlsbüttel airport, which was involved with the Berlin Airlift. He made friends with German families in the area, even though fraternisation was forbidden. After being demobbed, he became a delegate for the Leeds No. 2 branch of the National Union of Tailors and Garment Workers, and then a delegate for the Leeds City Labour Party. (Harding's great-uncle became a member of IWW (Industrial Workers of the World) when he was working in Canada). In 1957, already being a member of the Cross Gates Ward Labour Party, Harding joined the Cross gates Tenants' and Householders' Association, and edited a community