Who are we ?
Les Résistances 2025 is an event co-organized by the organization Terres de Luttes, the Collectif 924 and volunteers from Normandy and elsewhere.
TERRES DE LUTTES
Terres de Luttes supports the collectives in the development of their struggles by offering them training (communication, legal, financial, etc.), advice, creating links and inter-struggle actions and supporting the emergence of a new narrative, that of a fair and sustainable world defended by its inhabitants. The goal? That as many local struggles as possible win across France and that all those who enter into struggle today can feel supported, relayed and trained to amplify their action.
THE 924 COLLECTIVE
Resistance often begins outside our frontdoor, or rather at our end of the road. Especially when a highway project is announced that will scar acres of countryside hedgerow.
So although in terms of climate, landscape or the history of struggles, the Ornais bocage has little to do with Larzac – the site of the first edition of Les Résistantes – no doubt their inhabitants share certain character traits: being attached to their living territory and stubbornly defending it.
In 2022, the 924 collective was created with a clear goal: to use every means possible to derail this useless and harmful project. Volunteer naturalists surveyed the route in search of protected species, and discovered the extremely rare plum beak in a line of old gullies. A providential ally that has become the symbol of the struggle. Demonstrations, public meetings, association stands and field trips have brought residents and activists together. The collective has also joined the national coalition La Déroute des Routes, which campaigns for a moratorium on all road projects, a space for exchange, solidarity and understanding of the concrete industry. Our local struggles are making sense in a more global perspective, with each project seen as a link in a chain enclosing our spaces and our ways of life in the hands of globalized capitalism.
Locally, work has not yet begun, but we intend to ensure that it never does! Despite the shameful pressure from local barons, legal action has been taken and is being investigated. But that is not enough.
Welcoming the Résistantes this summer is also an opportunity for us to put our determination into action, to keep the pressure on the project leaders and to provide a sounding board for the struggles against useless and destructive development projects.
In an ageing and rather conservative rural department where, as elsewhere, far-right ideas are gaining ground and where being committed is often a vocation, we hope that the organization of this event will also be a unifying moment for all those who are working towards a future that is united, sustainable and desirable.
Because all campaigns have the seeds of resistance within them, we invite you to share them and make them grow together this summer 🙂
Welcome to the bocage!
THE ORNAIS BOCAGE
The Ornais bocage has long been a hotbed of social and environmental struggles. In the 2000s, a project to bury nuclear waste in Athis de l’Orne met with strong local opposition. The inhabitants, aware of the environmental and health risks, mobilized to protect their territory, demonstrating a strong environmental awareness and a determination to defend their living environment, by creating the Collectif citoyen normand, le nucléaire et ses déchets, non merci!
This tradition of resistance is rooted in a rich history of trade unions and labor. At the beginning of the 20th century, the Orne bocage was a strategic center for the textile industry, employing thousands of workers. In 1907, the “Hundred Days’ Strike” saw 5,000 workers from Flers rise up against difficult working conditions, marking one of the biggest strikes in the French textile industry.
Even today, activists still want to embody this alliance between ecological awareness and social commitment. Past struggles have forged a collective identity focused on environmental protection and social justice. Residents continue to organize to defend their territory against contemporary threats, such as the 924 highway, thus perpetuating a long tradition of citizen mobilization and resilience in the face of the challenges imposed by unnecessary and destructive industrial or public projects.