War on Want
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
War On Want is a campaigning charity based in London, England, which highlights the needs of poverty-stricken areas around the world, lobbying governments and international agencies to tackle problems, as well as raising public awareness of the concerns of developing nations while supporting organisations throughout the third world. War on Want tends to focus on the root causes of poverty rather than its effects, and places importance on enabling people in poverty to solve their own problems.
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[edit] History
The organisation was formed in 1951 after a letter from Victor Gollancz to The Guardian was read by the future Prime Minister Harold Wilson, who coined the name. Since then, the organisation has taken part in many campaigns and investigations, including in the 1970s helping to expose baby food companies marketing powdered milk infant formula as a healthier option than breast milk to mothers in the developing world - a dangerous and expensive option for these mothers who had no access to safe drinking water and sterilisation facilities.
In the 1980s, War on Want campaigned on the role of women in the developing world, and supported liberation movements in Eritrea, South Africa and Western Sahara.
From 1983 to 1987, George Galloway was General Secretary of War On Want. The Daily Mirror accused him of living luxuriously at the charity's expense. An independent auditor cleared him of misuse of funds, though he did repay £1,720 in contested expenses. More than two years after Galloway stepped down as General Secretary to serve as a Labour MP, the UK government's Charity Commission investigated War on Want, finding accounting irregularities from 1985 to 1989, but little evidence that money was used for non-charitable purposes. Galloway had been general secretary for the first three of those years. The commission said responsibility lay largely with auditors and did not single out individuals for blame. War On Want was found to have been insolvent, and subsequently dismissed all its staff and went into administration. It was rescued and relaunched in 1991.
In the 1990s, it focused on issues that resulted from globalisation, including workers' rights and a call to set up a Tobin Tax on currency speculation.
[edit] Current work
War on Want is one of the members of the Make Poverty History coalition. Currently War on Want campaigns for the rights of the people of Western Sahara, for corporate accountability, for the rights of Palestinians and against the separation wall. It works with several overseas organisations such as ones that support child labourers in Guatemala, olive farmers in Palestine and factory workers in China.
[edit] Finances
Their expenditure in 2004/2005 was almost £1.7million, of which £900,000 went towards partners overseas, £450,000 for campaigning and development education, £260,000 towards fundraising, and £58,000 for management and administration.
[edit] See also
- Nestlé boycott
- Harold John Timperley (secretary and treasurer in 1950s)
- Solidar, a European network of development and social welfare organisations that War on Want is affiliated to.
