Ben Patrick Chacko (born 1984) is an
English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ide ...
journalist
A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalis ...
who is the editor of the ''
Morning Star''. After joining the newspaper in 2010, he became editor in 2015.
Early life
Chacko was born in
Camden,
London
London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
. He was brought up in
Cheltenham, and educated at the local
Pate's Grammar School
en, That which is hidden shall be revealed
, established =
, closed =
, type = Grammar school;Academy
, religion =
, president =
, head_label =
, head = Russel Ellicott
, r_head_label =
, r_head =
, chair_label =
, chair =
, founder ...
, and
St John's College, Oxford, where he studied
Mandarin Chinese
Mandarin (; ) is a group of Chinese (Sinitic) dialects that are natively spoken across most of northern and southwestern China. The group includes the Beijing dialect, the basis of the phonology of Standard Chinese, the official language ...
.
His father, Francis Chacko, who came to Britain from
India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
at the age of eight, is an
actuary,
while his
Lancastrian mother Sarah (''née'' Willcock) is a
software engineer
Software engineering is a systematic engineering approach to software development.
A software engineer is a person who applies the principles of software engineering to design, develop, maintain, test, and evaluate computer software. The term ''p ...
who studied for a
DPhil
A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is ...
at the
University of Oxford
, mottoeng = The Lord is my light
, established =
, endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019)
, budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20)
, chancellor ...
.
His brother is the
tax
A tax is a compulsory financial charge or some other type of levy imposed on a taxpayer (an individual or legal entity) by a governmental organization in order to fund government spending and various public expenditures (regional, local, or n ...
barrister Thomas Chacko, of
Pump Court Tax Chambers.
Chacko credits his conversion to
communism
Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a ...
to a recommendation from his mother when he was a teenager that he abandon the ''
Socialist Worker
''Socialist Worker'' is the name of several far-left newspapers currently or formerly associated with the International Socialist Tendency (IST). It is a weekly newspaper published by the Socialist Workers Party (SWP) in the United Kingdom since ...
'' newspaper, published by the
Socialist Workers Party, for something more genuinely "leftie", such as the ''Morning Star''.
Chacko found the ''Star'' "a real revelation".
By the age of 15, Chacko was attending meetings of the
Young Communist League
The Young Communist League (YCL) is the name used by the youth wing of various Communist parties around the world. The name YCL of XXX (name of country) originates from the precedent established by the Communist Youth International.
Examples of Y ...
.
He edited ''
Challenge'', the journal of the Young Communist League and was a member of the student union council at Oxford.
Career
Chacko was appointed editor of the ''Morning Star'' in May 2015, the youngest editor of the paper since its founding editor,
William Rust.
He joined the paper as a sub-editor in 2010, and was subsequently deputy features editor, assistant editor and deputy editor before being appointed acting editor in July 2014.
"''The Star'' is the most precious and only voice we have in the daily media", said the Labour MP
Jeremy Corbyn
Jeremy Bernard Corbyn (; born 26 May 1949) is a British politician who served as Leader of the Opposition and Leader of the Labour Party from 2015 to 2020. On the political left of the Labour Party, Corbyn describes himself as a socialist ...
at the time of Chacko's appointment in May 2015. "I look forward to working with Ben in promoting socialism and progress".
Political views
After leaving university, Chacko lived in China for a few years. The country, according to him, is evidence that "you can run a society without surrendering to the idea that the market is always right".
Post-Soviet Russia, on the other hand, he describes as "a gangster capitalist state run by oligarchs".
In summer 2015, he told Josh Glancy of ''
The Sunday Times
''The Sunday Times'' is a British newspaper whose circulation makes it the largest in Britain's quality press market category. It was founded in 1821 as ''The New Observer''. It is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of News UK, w ...
'': "We need a revolution in politics to overturn the power of private ownership... That doesn't mean you'd have people storming
Buckingham Palace. It could be a revolution that is enacted by people in
parliament
In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: representing the electorate, making laws, and overseeing the government via hearings and inquiries. Th ...
as a result of a mass movement for change".
Notes
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Chacko, Ben
1984 births
Living people
Date of birth missing (living people)
English communists
English newspaper editors
English male journalists
English people of Indian descent
People from Camden Town
People educated at Pate's Grammar School
Alumni of St John's College, Oxford
Morning Star (British newspaper) journalists
Communist Party of Britain members
Young Communist League of Britain members