[1][2] Ahmed Tlili was born into a family of struggling farmers at El Ksar, a town a little in the Gafsa mining region, slightly to the west of the precise centre of the French protectorate of Tunisia.

[2] He played a very important part in creating the Tunisian General Labour Union ("l'Union générale tunisienne du travail" / UGTT), elected a member of its administrative commission at its constitutional congress in January 1946.

[3] He succeeded in gaining access and influence in the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU), and played a decisive role in creating its African regional organisation.

In 1958 began to distance himself publicly from the president, criticising his autocratic methods and, notably, refusing to subordinate the UGTT to the country's ruling party.

In January 1966, a year before he died, he published a powerful indictment of the government under the title "Letter to Bourgiba" ("Lettre à Bourguiba")[4] which displeased the authorities.