Guido Carlo Luigi Baracchi

Guido Carlo Luigi Baracchi (11 December 1887 – 13 December 1975) was an Australian left-wing political activist and writer. He was independently wealthy and associated with a variety of causes. He was an anti-war activist during World War I and was involved with the Wobblies. In 1920 he was a foundation member of the Communist Party of Australia (CPA), from which he was expelled twice; he was also involved with communist parties in England and Germany and spent time in the Soviet Union. His second expulsion from the CPA in 1940 was for association with Trotskyism, for which he continued to advocate. He eventually joined the mainstream Australian Labor Party (ALP) in 1962.

Early life Baracchi was born on 11 December 1887 in South Yarra, Victoria. He was the only child of Kate (née Petty) and Pietro Baracchi. His mother was an Australian, while his father was an Italian-born astronomer who arrived in Australia in 1876 and became Victoria's government astronomer and a president of the Royal Society of Victoria.

Baracchi was educated at Melbourne Grammar School and studied classics at the University of Melbourne from 1904 to 1905, although he did not graduate.

Barrachi's parents both left him substantial inheritances which meant he had no need to work. His mother, who came from a "family of wealthy butchers", died in 1908 and left an inheritance of £32,519 . By 1922 he was reportedly earning £1,000 per year from his mother's estate. After his father's death in 1926 he inherited a further £32,679 .

Baracchi and Zander married in London in 1923, but later divorced. In 1933 he began a relationship with playwright Betty Roland. They separated in 1942 and in 1946 he married for a third time to Ula Maddocks , a nurse. That marriage also ended in divorce and in 1962 he married artist Ethel Carson , an artist; he was widowed in 1971.

Baracchi died on 13 December 1975 in Penrith, New South Wales, aged 88, while campaigning for the ALP at the 1975 federal election.