From the time of its formation in 1921 until its dissolution in 1939 Hannington was the head of the National Unemployed Workers' Movement, an offshoot of the CPGB.

[3] Wal Hannington was one of the inner circle of the executive which controlled the organization, working as a full-time leader of the section dedicated to the metal workers.

[4] In 1925 Hannington was one of 12 members of the Communist Party convicted at the Old Bailey under the Incitement to Mutiny Act 1797 and one of the five defendants sentenced to 12 months' imprisonment.

He includes accounts of his numerous prison terms, and claims that the government had him and other members of the NUWM under surveillance.

In 1937 his book The Problem of the Distressed Areas was published by Victor Gollancz with a preface by Professor Harold Laski.