In October, the radical left lost Guglielmo Carchedi — “Mino” to his friends and comrades — who died in his sleep at the age of eighty-five. He was one of the great Marxist thinkers of our times.

I first met him in London a few years after the economic meltdown of 2007–9, at a conference I organized for the journal International Socialism to explore the dynamics of that crisis. He spoke patiently and calmly, setting out his views with authority and an unwavering confidence in the power of Marxist theory. I heard him many more times over the next few years, always speaking with the same measured style. On occasion, he ended his presentations with a shy smile and the Latin “QED,” quod erat demonstrandum: “that which was to be demonstrated.”

It was always a delight when our paths crossed. Often I would encounter him in conjunction with Michael Roberts, with whom Carchedi would form a close personal and intellectual relationship.