Roger Bismuth was born in the seaside Tunis suburb of La Goulette on May 8, 1921. His family’s background was humble; his father worked as a shop assistant. In 1943, after completing his elementary and secondary schooling, he found work at a textile mill in Tunis owned by Mhamed Chenik, an industrialist and politician who served as prime minister to Moncef Bey and Lamine Bey (1942–1943). While employed there, Bismuth joined the USTT (Syndical Union of Tunisian Workers), which was closely aligned with the PCT (Tunisian Communist Party). In 1944 he became a union offi…