War on Want

War on Want describes its vision as “a world free from poverty and oppression, based on social justice, equality and human rights for all.” It frames poverty as political, arising from decisions by governments and corporations and from an economic system that, in its view, concentrates wealth and power. Its stated mission is to fight the root causes of poverty and human-rights violations as part of a worldwide movement for global justice.[1]

The organization says it campaigns in the United Kingdom to challenge corporations and governments, publishes research on injustice and human-rights violations, and partners with grassroots social movements internationally. It names trade unions, workers’ organisations, feminist groups and Indigenous groups among its partners. An elected Council of Management governs the organization; its accounts describe the Council as the trustees and governing body, with an Executive Director responsible for day-to-day operations.[1][2]

War on Want is constituted as a charitable company limited by guarantee. Its 2024–25 accounts list charity number 208724 and company number 629916.[2] NGO Monitor, a critical advocacy organization, reports that War on Want had total income of £2.1 million and expenses of £2.5 million in fiscal year 2023–24, and names the Open Society Foundation, Rosa Luxemburg Foundation and Comic Relief among its donors.[3]

War on Want traces its beginnings to a February 1951 letter by publisher Victor Gollancz, published in The Guardian, calling for international action against poverty and an end to the Korean War. Gollancz proposed an international fund “to turn swords into ploughshares” and asked readers to send a postcard saying “yes”; the organization’s history says he received 10,000 replies within a month.[5]

The Association for World Peace was formed in March 1951 in response to the appeal. In May, it invited Labour MP Harold Wilson to chair a committee planning “the conquest of world hunger.” The resulting work became War on Want: A Plan for World Development, published on 9 June 1952. The organization distinguishes this early movement from its later legal establishment: its accounts say it was incorporated on 8 June 1959 and registered as a charity on 22 September 1962.[5][2]

Its campaigns have shifted across decades. War on Want says it raised concerns about developing-country debt by 1961. In the 1970s it challenged companies’ marketing of powdered milk to mothers in the Global South, arguing that the products could be more dangerous and expensive where safe drinking water and sterilisation facilities were lacking. It also campaigned for tea-plantation workers’ rights and supported the anti-apartheid struggle in South Africa.[5]

The organization describes its 1980s work as including campaigns on Third World debt and women’s roles in tackling entrenched poverty, as well as support for liberation movements in Eritrea, South Africa and Western Sahara. In the 1990s, it focused on globalisation and workers’ rights and called for a Tobin tax on currency speculation. War on Want identifies its 1974 publication The Baby Killer as a landmark in its campaign about baby-milk marketing.[5][6]

War on Want combines research and public campaigning with partnerships and supporter mobilisation. It describes its international work as linking workers’ groups around shared systems and structures, and as building solidarity between campaigners in the United Kingdom and partner movements and trade unions overseas.[7]

One example is its support for the Bakers, Food and Allied Workers Union’s McStrike campaign at McDonald’s. The campaign began in 2014 as part of Fast Food Rights and Hungry for Justice. Its demands included ending zero-hours contracts and youth rates, establishing a £15 minimum wage, improving health and safety, and addressing sexual harassment. War on Want describes the campaign’s approach as combining workplace action with engagement with regulators, customers, consumers and investors.[7]

The organization’s 2024–25 accounts report campaigns on climate justice, tax justice, workers’ rights and Palestine. They say more than 7,170 supporters wrote to MPs urging UK support for a UN Tax Convention, and more than 11,500 emailed MPs about its “Tax the Super-Rich!” campaign and proposed wealth tax on assets above £10 million. The same accounts report that more than 23,000 people contacted the UK Foreign Secretary through its “This is Genocide” campaign and 35,000 supporters emailed MPs to demand an end to UK arms supplies to Israel.[2]

The accounts’ descriptions of Israel’s military actions in Gaza as genocide, and of Palestinian conditions using terms including occupation and apartheid, are War on Want’s advocacy positions rather than independently established findings in the cited material.[2]

War on Want supports the Palestinian-led Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement and advocates restrictions on arms transfers and trade connected with Israel and Israeli settlements. Its campaign page says sustained campaigning involving the organization contributed to British security company G4S selling its Israeli subsidiary in 2016; this is the charity’s account of its role in that outcome.[8]

The organization’s Israel-related campaigning has included calls for an arms embargo, boycotts and divestment. NGO Monitor records a 2013 report calling for a two-way arms embargo, a 2017 report on UK financial institutions and Israel’s militarism, and a campaign launched in July 2022 targeting Barclays under the title “Don’t Bank on Apartheid.” It also reports campaigns against UK arms sales to Israel and support for trade restrictions concerning Israeli settlements.[3]

Earlier activity included the 2005 briefing paper Time for Sanctions Against Israel, which NGO Monitor says urged the UK government to press for suspension of the EU–Israel Association Agreement. The same organization’s account describes a 2006 “Profiting from the Occupation” campaign promoting boycotts and divestment from companies it said were connected to goods made in the West Bank — known by its original, indigenous Jewish name of Judea and Samaria — and the Golan Heights, or to business with the Israeli government in those areas. It also reports campaigning against Caterpillar products and calls for churches to divest from companies War on Want regarded as supporting the occupation.[9]

In July 2006, War on Want held a London event titled “Profiting from the Occupation: A People’s Tribunal to expose the Corporations behind the Israeli Occupation of Palestine.” NGO Monitor names Jeff Halper and Mustafa Barghouti among its keynote speakers and reports that the event prompted a Charity Commission investigation into whether the organization’s activities were consistent with its charitable status. The report said the investigation’s results had not been made public as of January 2007.[9]

Other reported campaigns included an effort against the separation barrier, with a project titled “The Writing on the Wall” in which celebrities and politicians signed a model of the barrier. A 2004 Globes article identified Roger Waters as a leading participant and reported that an eight-metre model was displayed at Denmark’s Roskilde rock festival with the slogan “Make peace, not walls.”[10] A Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs commentary also describes War on Want’s work on a Caterpillar report and says it influenced a Church of England debate in 2005; that account characterizes the church’s initial vote for “morally responsible investment” as effectively supporting divestment from Caterpillar.[11]

In July 2024, War on Want described the International Court of Justice’s advisory opinion on Israel’s policies and practices in the Occupied Palestinian Territory as “a rallying cry for boycott, divestment and sanctions against Israel.” The organization called for an end to arms transfers and trade deals and urged businesses to stop operating in, or importing goods from, Israeli settlements.[3] After the January 2025 announcement of a temporary Israel–Hamas ceasefire, it argued that the agreement did not address what it called the injustice Palestinians had faced, and referred to Israel’s occupation, the blockade of Gaza and a Palestinian right of return.[3]

War on Want’s historical significance within British anti-poverty campaigning lies in its effort to connect charitable work with structural economic criticism and trade-union organizing. The organization identifies The Baby Killer as the first publication to draw attention to damage caused by baby-milk companies, while its broader history records campaigns on developing-country debt, apartheid, globalisation and financial-transaction taxation.[5][6]

The organization also presents practical solidarity as central to its influence. Its 2021 retrospective describes it as a bridge between campaigners in the United Kingdom and overseas movements and cites McStrike as a model combining workplace action with public and investor pressure. War on Want’s official history further reports that, following the 2013 Rana Plaza collapse, it helped raise a 100,000-signature petition and drove more than 150 companies to join the Bangladesh Safety Accord; those figures are the charity’s account of its campaign impact.[5][7]

War on Want’s BDS advocacy and its descriptions of Israeli policies are politically contested. A 2017 analysis by the Institute for National Security Studies placed the organization within a broad, non-hierarchical BDS network, while distinguishing it from groups whose primary purpose was promoting BDS. The author cautioned against generalising across that network and wrote that concerns about some groups’ aims “cannot be said about global organizations such as War on Want.” The analysis also said direct government financing of BDS activity by the broader category of human-rights organizations had not been proven; it did not establish that War on Want received such funding.[12]

In September 2018, UK Lawyers for Israel and The Lawfare Project filed a complaint with the Charity Commission. Their allegations included links between War on Want and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), misuse of charitable funds for political campaigning, and publication of material they said was misleading or likely to promote racial hatred. The cited accounts report the complainants’ claims, not a finding that the allegations were substantiated by the regulator.[4][4]

The complainants cited War on Want’s reported income of more than £1.9 million for the year ending March 31, 2017, along with spending figures for fundraising, campaigns and policy, and international programmes. Those figures were presented in support of their argument that the organization’s political activity was inconsistent with its charitable objects; that conclusion was their allegation.[4] NGO Monitor separately reports that the Charity Commission found War on Want’s accounts for 1985–1989 to be “materially misstated” and warned trustees in August 2005 that political activities needed a “reasonable expectation” of furthering the charity’s purposes. These historical regulatory matters are recounted in NGO Monitor’s report.[9]

In October 2018, UK Lawyers for Israel reported that PayPal had stopped providing services to War on Want after the advocacy group raised alleged PFLP links with the payment company. The account says PayPal had previously appeared as a donation option, but does not quote PayPal’s own explanation for its decision.[13] Separately, Jewish News reported in 2016 that outgoing executive director John Hilary denied a report that he had been forced out because of complaints and a Charity Commission investigation, saying he had decided to leave many months earlier after 12 years at the organization.[14]