The United Nations declared 17 October 1994 to be the first ‘World Day against Poverty’. On that occasion, the General Report on Poverty (GRP) was launched, which acquired a great symbolic value in the history of the fight against poverty in Belgium. The report is generally considered to be a significant milestone in Belgian’s poverty policy as it represents a public recognition of the interests and concerns of poor people, and installed the idea of giving voice to the poor as a new paradigm in social policy making in Belgium and Europe. Based on an extensive documentary analysis of ATD Fourth World and King Baudouin Foundation archives as well as oral history with seventeen key-stakeholders involved in the production process of the GRP, this article analyzes the different ways in which the idea of giving voice to the poor materialized throughout the three-year GRP production process. The GRP was processed by non-poor allies of the poor, professional social workers, politicians and other societal stakeholders as a rhetorical instrument in a complex power struggle over the correct interpretation of poverty, as well as the right representation of the poor. Our analysis shows that this complex power struggle is an inherent and vital aspect of participatory ventures that might lead to social justice and change rather than as an indirect issue to hide or dismiss. It might be a myth to expect that people in poverty could radically challenge and change socially unjust and often evident power relationships in societies on their own. However, our analysis is also an illustration of the vital complexity of such participatory ventures.