Who we are

Mark is a former Research Fellow at the Royal Institute of International Affairs (Chatham House) and was visiting fellow at the Institut Français des Relations Internationales in Paris and the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Auswärtige Politik in Bonn. He is a graduate of Goldsmiths’ College, University of London and postgraduate of the London School of Economics.

Mark has written as a freelance journalist for various media for 30 years. He also worked in the international development NGO world for 25 years. He was previously director of the World Development Movement (now Global Justice Now) and head of policy at the international NGOs, ActionAid and Christian Aid. From 2005-18 Mark managed Curtis Research, his own research consultancy covering international development and foreign policy issues. He conducted field research in 15 African countries, visiting the continent 50 times, and produced over 130 reports for over 40 NGOs.

Richard has also written a number of award-winning plays, including the “Colour of Justice”, taken from the inquiry into the racist murder of Stephen Lawrence, and is on the Board of Liberty. 

His research has been translated into numerous languages, reported on across the mainstream media, and presented as evidence in the UK Parliament and United Nations.

Her investigation of a Navy SEAL raid in a remote Yemeni village won the 2018 George Polk Award for foreign reporting, the most esteemed US mark of distinction in international journalism after the Pulitzer Prize.

In addition to her journalistic work, Iona heads up the Yemen Data Project, which collates open-source data on the Saudi-led coalition air war and political violence in Yemen’s ground war. Before becoming a journalist, Iona rode and trained racehorses professionally for more than a decade in the UK, Australia and Ireland.

She is the author of a number of books, including European Communism Since 1989 (Palgrave Macmillan), Breaking the South Slav Dream: The Rise and Fall of Yugoslavia (Pluto Press), CND – Now More Than Ever: The Story of a Peace Movement (Vision Paperbacks), The New European Left: a socialism for the twenty-first century? (Palgrave Macmillan).

Widely published in the media and with frequent radio and television appearances, she is also an editorial board member of Transform – a journal of the radical left (Public Reading Rooms), and the Journal of Contemporary Central and Eastern Europe (Routledge).

His books include: The Ponting Affair; Blacklist, The Inside Story of Political Vetting; In Defence of the Realm? The case for Accountable Security and Intelligence Services; A Conflict of Loyalties, an account of GCHQ and the ban on trade union membership there; and Truth is A Difficult Concept, based on the evidence revealed by the Scott arms-to-Iraq inquiry.

Richard has also written a number of award-winning plays, including the “Colour of Justice”, taken from the inquiry into the racist murder of Stephen Lawrence, and is on the Board of Liberty. 

Previously he covered the geopolitics of the environment at the Guardian and was a weekly columnist at Middle East Eye. Nafeez is the author of eight books including his latest, Failing States, Collapsing Systems: Biophysical Triggers of Political Violence (Springer).

His investigative work around international terrorism has been used by the 9/11 Commission and the 7/7 Coroner’s Inquest.

Nafeez has taught international relations and political science at the University of Sussex and Brunel University, is a Research Fellow at the Schumacher Institute for Sustainable Systems, a Fellow at the Royal Society of Arts and twice listed in the Evening Standard’s top 1,000 most influential Londoners.

He is critic of US foreign policy and its ambitions for geopolitical hegemony and the neoliberal turn of global capitalism, which he identifies in terms of class warfare waged from above against the needs and interests of the majority.

Chomsky is also an incisive critic of the ideological role of the mainstream corporate mass media which, he maintains, “manufactures consent” toward the desirability of capitalism and the political powers supportive of it.

For decades institute professor of linguistics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology he is now laureate professor of linguistics at the University of Arizona.

This research led to her involvement as a founding member of the Media Reform Coalition and as vice-chair of the Board of Directors for the campaign group Hacked Off – both of which campaign for a free, plural and accountable media.

After leaving the army and jail Joe studied International Relations and, later, Veterans Studies. His book Soldier Box, published by Verso, won the Bread and Roses political non-fiction prize in 2014. Joe’s current interests include veterans in the UK and far-right activism with the military.

He works as a communications officer for the armed forces watchdog Forces Watch and trains, teaches and competes in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.

Her first book, Hezbollah: Born With a Vengeance, was published in 1997. The book describes the rise and political agenda of Hezbollah against the background of Lebanese history from 1970 to 1997. Her second book, The Flying Carpet to Baghdad: One Woman’s Fight for Two Orphans of War, was published in 2009. The book chronicles her efforts to help two girls during the Iraq war.

She has interviewed A.Q.Khan, the father of Pakistan’s atomic bomb, revealed a €1.2m condolence payment agreement between the US government and the family of the Italian aid worker, Giovanni Lo Porto, killed in a US drone strike, and she investigated the harsh working conditions of Pakistani workers in a major Italian garment factory in Karachi.

Stefania has started a multi-jurisdictional freedom of information litigation effort to defend the right of the press to access the full set of documents on the Julian Assange and WikiLeaks case.

She is the author of two books – Dossier WikiLeaks: Segreti Italiani and Una Bomba: Dieci Storie.

Since joining the MEC, Madawi has been conducting research on mutations among Saudi Islamists after the 2011 Arab uprisings. This research focuses on the new reinterpretations of Islamic texts prevalent among a small minority of Saudi reformers and activism in the pursuit of democratic governance and civil society.

Her edited book, Salman’s Legacy: The Dilemmas of a New Era was published by Hurst in 2018. Madawi has published several articles in academic journals and regularly contributes to international television and print media. 

Benjamin has also written novels for young adults, and plays for radio and stage. He is associated with many grassroots organisations including Haven Distribution, which sends books to prisoners, Aik Saath, which helps to bring together young people of all and no faith, and Inquest, an organisation that supports the families of those who have died whilst in custody.

He has been a life-long supporter of The Vegan Society of Britain, has 18 honorary doctorates and is an OBE refusenik. He is currently visiting professor at De Montfort University, Leicester and Professor of Poetry and Creative Writing at Brunel University, London.