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Research dossier · General Reference

Stop the War Coalition

UK peace advocacy group (2001-)

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionAug 7, 2026
Entity authorityQ1571260 ↗
Source-derived summary

The Stop the War Coalition (StWC), informally known simply as Stop the War, is a British group that campaigns against the United Kingdom's involvement in military conflicts.

It was established on 21 September 2001 to campaign against the impending war in Afghanistan. It then campaigned against the impending invasion of Iraq; the 15 February 2003 protest organised by the Coalition along with the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) and the Muslim Association of Britain (MAB), was the largest public demonstration in British history.

Since then, the Coalition has campaigned against the 2011 military intervention in Libya and opposed UK involvement in the War against the Islamic State, stating that airstrikes would only fuel extremism. It opposed sending military aid to Ukraine during the Russian invasion, stating that it risks starting a war between NATO and Russia, a position which drew criticism from Andrew Fisher. It has called for ceasefires in the Russo-Ukrainian War and in the Gaza war.

The group has been criticised for allegedly excusing military aggression by enemies of the US and UK, and critics accuse it of being "more anti-West than anti-war".

Formation and leading members

The impetus to form the Stop the War Coalition came following the September 11 attacks in the United States. The Coalition was launched at a public meeting of 2,000 people at Friends House on Euston Road in London, on 21 September which was chaired by Lindsey German, then active in the Socialist Workers Party (SWP). "The Stop the War Coalition has been formed to encourage and mobilise the largest possible movement against the war", said the founding statement.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Stop the War Coalition” is uK peace advocacy group (2001-). The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Stop, Coalition and peace, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewA dependable orientation record for establishing vocabulary, names and a first evidence trail. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—2001, 2003, 2011—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 2001. For this dossier, Stop, Coalition and peace is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “uK peace advocacy group (2001-)” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 7, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1571260. VIAF identifies the subject as 152827306. The Library of Congress control number is no2008013640. 3 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2001, 2003 and 2011.

Critical limits

The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

Best used for
  • Subject orientation
  • Search vocabulary
  • Locating named sources
Verify next

The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Stop the War Coalition”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Stop the War Coalition primary sources, Stop the War Coalition archive and Stop research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Stop the War Coalition”?
  2. What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
  3. Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
Subject index

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Stop the War Coalition” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.