[1]: xi [2]: 689 During his travels in Europe he would see the rise of Fascism, Nazism as well as the Black Shirts in the United Kingdom, a civil war in Spain, organised Marxist study groups and would later join the British Communist Party in 1933.
[1]: xii The year 1948 was turning point in South African politics with the National Party winning the 1948 election and their policy of Apartheid.
[1]: xii In 1969, he attended the Morogoro Conference when the ANC membership was opened to all South African races and was invited to become a member of the organisation.
[2]: 690 Oliver Tambo suggested that Simons run courses in History and the National Democratic Revolution for Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK), the armed wing of the ANC based in the Angolan camps.
[5] The ANC camp at Novo Catengue in Angola would be subject to a bombing attack by the South African Air Force, though he and his students were not present that day.
[1]: xii In 1986 a two-year study by a committee of ANC lawyers and political scientists worked on a document on constitutional guidelines for a future multiparty democracy in South Africa that would expand on the principles of the Freedom Charter, that saw Simons as its chairman.