by Renato Ramos and Alexandre Samis, Rio de Janeiro, 2001.
Translated by: Paul Sharkey
‘I woke at 5.00 am. Passos, who had been up and about for hours, was sitting on his bed reading Determinism and Responsibility by Hamon. I grabbed a towel and went downstairs to wash my face. When I came back from the yard, after drying off, I saw two individuals. It was a moment or two before I realised who they were. With revolvers drawn they spoke to me and asked me harshly: “Where’s Domingos Passos?”Anticipating another of the attacks that our comrade had been through so often before, I was keen to cover for him and said that he was not around. I told them: “There’s no Domingos Passos living here!”
The son of a Wesleyan minister, Thibedi William Thibedi was one of the most important black African revolutionary syndicalists in South African history. Thibedi was a leading figure in the International Socialist League (ISL) and in the Industrial Workers of Africa syndicalist union. Later he played an important role in the early Communist Party of South Africa (CPSA), particularly its union work. He was active in all of the key black unions from the 1910s to the 1940s.
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