The Birth and Life of an Unexpected Alliance between Occupational Victims of Pesticide and Environmental Organizations

Building on an analysis of a social movement that brings together French farmers who denounce the impact of pesticide on their health, we consider the role of political coalitions in the emergence and development of “victims’” movements. In our case, we demonstrate that the creation of the farmers’ movement was greatly facilitated by environmental organizations, which helped the farmers to group together and gave them access to resources and frames through which to mobilize. We analyze how the political distance between farmers and environmental activists has put their coalition under stress over time and identify factors that helped the coalition to hold up. More broadly, this article illustrates the importance of analyzing this coalition work over time to understand the evolution of victims’ mobilizations.