Come on, eh, badger! (Hunting and macronie) / Bang, you're dead!
(Hunting and femicide) / Digital class struggle and money in Africa(Hunting for profits 3.0) / Quick for the holidays (Hunting for anti-techs)
Come on, eh, badger!
The badger has such a bad reputation that its name became in the
seventies of the last century, a mockery, an insult to describe clumsy,
insignificant, not very smart, unsophisticated, naive, or even stupid
individuals.
The badger (the animal) lives in groups in very deep burrows and has an
intense social life. But "Its nocturnal and underground life has given
it a bad reputation. It is still considered by some today as a "stinker"
to be destroyed and is paying the price of growing urbanization and
increased road traffic." [1]
To eat, the badger eats rodents and insects. It could therefore be an
ally of farmers, but unfortunately, it also eats their grapes and corn.
It is therefore classified as a pest (for a long time it was gassed with
Zyklon B) and is hunted throughout France.
The hunting federations (those protectors of the hunter's rights over
nature) are therefore having a field day with their specialists in
"underground hunting" of digging up badgers. Because as this badger of a
badger takes refuge at the bottom of its burrow, it must be flushed out
and extracted with enormous pincers, before stabbing it manfully to feed
it to the dogs (because badgers are inedible).
It is a very exciting activity for hunters with the specialized
fanfares, the howls of the pack and the uniforms of the participating
minions/clowns.
Well, it is not enough to hunt them 12 months out of 12. The hunters
always need more.
Brilliant idea: to be able to hunt the young, which is still forbidden.
Another brilliant idea: have a scientific study carried out, funded by
the National Federation of Hunters, to determine to the day when young
badgers are weaned. To do this, "between May 15, 2023 and June 15,
2023... hunters from 20 departments captured and killed 442 badgers..."
[2]and had their stomachs examined.
And, by the miracle of neutral and objective science, all the badgers
were weaned on May 15, exactly.
Unfortunately, this "scientific" study proves nothing because badger
specialists already knew that animals were generally weaned around this
time. But being weaned for an animal (human or not) does not mean that
it has suddenly become independent. This is the case for the badger,
which still needs an intense collective life before becoming an adult.
And, nature protection associations regularly win against prefectural
decrees which illegally authorize the hunting of juveniles (39 appeals
won out of 47 in 2023).
The hunters therefore shot 442 creatures, which is "simply prohibited by
article L424-10 of the Environmental Code."
This frenzy regarding badgers has clear reasons: it allows hunters to
compensate for the periods when hunting is prohibited and to give
themselves the fine role of friends of farmers. Why?
The GROCCs (GROs Cons de Chasseurs) feed the animals in winter. This is
called baiting to "build loyalty in the territory" (according to the
hunting federations) wild boars and deer. As more animals survive the
winter in good health, there will be more to shoot in the spring, with
more money for the hunters thanks to the sale of "wild" game in
butchers. Unfortunately, the damage caused by these animals is greater
on crops and is not decreasing despite the widespread use of electric
fences surrounding cornfields and the incessant "regulation hunts". The
badger is a convenient excuse in this case.
More generally, this refers to what is called "leisure" hunting in
France, controlled by the very authoritarian Fédération Nationale des
Chasseurs. This all-powerful lobby has been ultra-pampered for about ten
years for electoral and political reasons: during the regional elections
of 2015 and then 2021, in a context of high abstention, the alliance
with hunters (and FRSEA farmers) allowed the right (Wauquiez in Auvergne
Rhône-Alpes, Bertrand in Hauts-de-France) to win these regions and to
hunt anything that even remotely resembled environmental protection.
In the last European elections, they presented a list called "Rural
Alliance". Their program was, on the one hand, a carbon copy of their
anti-European obsessions on the protection of nature and animal species:
"downgrading the status of protected species of the cormorant...
sovereignty of France to define huntable species... overhaul of the
Birds and Habitats Directive which has become obsolete... All forest
owners must be able to enjoy their property economically and socially
without hindrance". [3]On the other hand, it contained the rural
fundamentals of the extreme right: "Develop the resources of the
Gendarmerie and police... in rural and peri-rural areas
to[fight]itinerant delinquency... a proactive policy to reduce migratory
flows linked to the needs of professions lacking manpower... the
systematic return of irregular migrants..."
This list was led by their chief lobbyist Thierry Coste, also a lobbyist
for Russia, Chad, the chemical industry, arms dealer and advisor to
Macron. Coste "wanted to repeat the CPNT (Hunting, Fishing, Nature and
Traditions) coup... in the 1999 European elections... i.e. 6.77% of the
vote..." [4]Their list picked up 2.5%, far from the 5% hoped for. Macron
probably expected better with all the money he invested in them, but it
played (a little) its role of belittling the results of the extreme
right. The failure of this campaign - not chic but shocking - intended
to slow the regular and constant decline in the number of hunters,
nevertheless had a small advantage: the resignation of the FNC Führer,
Willy Schraen. [5]Fortunately, the FNC board of directors refused this
crime against hunters. Willy is saved again!
Heavy gift
One of Macron's latest treats for hunters is worth a visit to the
tobacconist. Since January 1, they can now sell hunting ammunition in
their tobacconists. You have to understand: 23,000 tobacconists are
crying poverty because the price of tobacco continues to rise and there
are not enough local gun shops for the trigger-happy. After two days of
training, tobacconists will be able to store and sell all hunting
ammunition. Small problem "Tobacco shops are businesses that are quite
targeted by burglars for cigarettes and scratch cards." [6]Jackpot for
thieves who will be able to stock up on 12, 16, 28, 410 ammunition for
smooth-bore shotguns and 22-250 Rem, 222 Rem, 243W, 270W... for rifled guns.
Pan, you're dead!
"Vertement..." has previously addressed the relationship between
femicides and hunting weapons. Well, incredibly, nothing has changed on
this issue. "The possession of firearms represents an exponential danger
that should have raised the alert to the maximum level. This is the
modus operandi in 30 of the 606 spousal femicides recorded between 2018
and 2022..." [7]. Despite the promises of the Grenelle against domestic
violence in 2019, the statistics are still vague and imprecise on the
firearms used by the murderers (they are almost exclusively men).
Faced with the government's unwillingness, Amnesty created its own
database. It therefore reveals that "half of the men had no obvious
reason to own a firearm, being neither hunters, nor members of the
security forces, nor sport shooters.
If we remove handguns or sport shooting weapons, "a hunting rifle was
used in at least 27.54% of the 102 femicides in 2020, and 25.44% of the
106 murders in 2021. That is, 1 in 4 femicides was caused using a
hunting weapon." [8]
Other lessons: most of the time, "there is no trial 69% of men commit
suicide after the act...". And, the absence of a trial means the absence
of a serious investigation into the weapons used.
Furthermore, contrary to the commitments made by Darmanin during the
Grenelle in 2019 - namely the systematic seizure of weapons from violent
spouses as soon as a complaint is filed - it took the assassination with
a shotgun and the immolation by her ex-husband of Chahinez Daoud (a
husband already convicted of acts of violence and who had already tried
to kill her after her release from prison) on May 3, 2021, for us to
finally consider implementing the Grenelle commitments.
Another situation. On February 22 in Viry (Haute-Savoie) Angela, seven
months pregnant, leaves her mobile home to inspect the damage caused by
repeated gunshots on her home. A bullet hits her. She dies. 40 years
old, two children, a husband, Roma and squatting on this land for a year.
The perpetrators were quickly found: a small group of friends all
hunters and hostile to these strange foreigners.
The perpetrator of the shooting was charged with "murder and attempted
murder committed on the grounds of race, ethnicity, nation or religion." [9]
Almost nothing in the press for this murder as for feminicides by
hunting weapon.
We should not, however, cast opprobrium on political allies who animate
our forests, protect nature against environmentalists, collect money
from hunting permits, request state aid to change their rifles, travel
around France in 4x4s with their low-cost national hunting permits
(thanks Manu!) and sell the meat of their leisure activities.
Sometimes unfortunately, carried away by their passion for the lives of
others, they commit acts that are certainly regrettable, but that's
life, you know, it's full of risks and tragedy, life. Willy Schraen said
it. And we must not stigmatize good French people who pay their taxes
and their licenses and are armed.
Digital class struggle and money in Africa
The other side of the magical digital world is the tens (or even
hundreds) of thousands of click slaves [10]called "labelers" who
moderate content for GAFAM and feed data to AI, all under appalling
conditions: pace, wages, and psychosocial risks. In May 2022, a former
Kenyan employee of the company Sama (a subcontractor of Meta, Facebook's
parent company) filed a complaint and accused the two companies of
"human trafficking, union busting, and failing to provide adequate
mental health support." [11]
Sama (an American company) employs "thousands of operators from all over
sub-Saharan Africa to moderate and label content from web giants like
Meta, Microsoft and OpenAI... as part of outsourcing partnerships." The
aim is to reduce the costs of this work as much as possible. A Kenyan
labor judge ruled that the complaint of the employee and 184 others were
justified and that this was indeed a case of human trafficking by the
client and the subcontractor. Twice "... the Nairobi labor court...
suspended the dismissals of the Kenyan moderators who therefore continue
to receive their salaries." [12]
Meta recently appealed because the stakes are enormous. GAFAM have
always tried to sell the idea that they are not labor-intensive
companies, while they subcontract to death all over the world to supply
their planet-destroying business at the lowest price, whether it is
water, energy, raw materials and their massive discharges of heat and CO2.
Quick for the holidays
Here is some information in response to the recent public stoning of
anti-industrial currents on various "radical" online media.
At the end of 2023, a long anonymous text was published on the sites of
the Mutu network (IAATA, CRIC, Rebellyon...) and a few others. It
intended to denounce "the reactionary shipwreck of the anti-industrial
movement" presented as a homogeneous and demonic bloc of publishers,
sites - Éd. Libre, l'Échappée, Pièces et Main d'oeuvre, Monde à
l'Envers, la Lenteur... - and authors. It called for "concrete
organization so that no bridge is established between our movements and
anti-Semitic, anti-trans, racist, ableist, anti-feminist, nationalist
currents, and people who could be complacent towards them."
Two texts written by some of those accused respond soberly to these
accusations and dishonest and Stalinist practices by opening up
interesting avenues of reflection.
The first , from the Ruptures collective (Grenoble), places at the heart
of its thinking the fact that "Everything in anti-industrial criticism
indicates that it is part of the lineage of materialist revolutionaries
who fight against exploitation, alienation and social domination. The
main break with the working-class tradition introduced by the
anti-industrialists is the recognition that capitalist development has
taken on such magnitude that we will not be able to be content with
simply taking the tool of production as is..." [13].
The other, "Au village, sans prétention" written by Matthieu Amiech
(Éditions la Lenteur) and available only in paper form [14]addresses a
wide range of subjects: COVID and the struggles against the health pass,
the impoverishment of politics, conservatism, the computerization of the
world and concludes thus: "What I know is that if we give ourselves the
political philosophy of building barriers between populations, then we
are sure that there will never be a revolutionary process, we are sure
that we will move towards increasingly authoritarian regimes."
In addition, reading the latest text from the Stop Micro collective -
which responds to the position taken by the CGT of STMicroelectronics
against the agreements linking them to Israel - is just as interesting.
While it welcomes the union's position, it criticizes its ambiguities on
"... the eminently contradictory nature of continuing to "[be]proud of
producing highly technologically advanced components" and simultaneously
wishing to defend oppressed peoples by being "extremely concerned about
the generalized rise of militarization and violence in the world..."
because we must "face the problem: let's not demand from ST a simple
"superficial moralization" but a definitive halt to all its production
of chips for military or dual-use use." [15]
Rook and Eugene the Jeep
Notes
[1] Badger: 5 preconceived ideas that die hard . France Nature
Environnement. 01/20/2022
[2] Badgers are getting shaved . Professor Canardeau. Le Canard
Enchaîné. 04/24/2024(2
[3] The rural alliance the urgency of common sense. List led by Jean
Lassalle. European elections of June 9, 2024
[4] European elections: Thierry Coste hunts on the RN's ground . N.
Segaunes. Le Monde. 05/11/2023
[5] French Hunters: the resignation of their president (Willy Schraen).
Camille Crosnier. Podcast "Camille goes green". France Inter.
[6] Honey, I'm going out to get some ammunition . J.- LP Le Canard
Enchaîné . 11/29/2023
[7] In France, a third of victims of domestic femicide were killed by
firearms. Human Rights Chronicle. Amnesty International. 04/12/2023
[8] Femicides, suicides... the ravages of hunting rifles . Moran
Kerinec. Reporterre . 09/12/2021
[9] Not seen on Cnews . A.-SM Le Canard Enchaîné. 12/06/2024
[10] "Waiting for the robots: An investigation into click work". Antonio
A. Caselli. Le Seuil, 2019
[11] "Digital convicts": How a court decision in Kenya weakens
outsourcing by web multinationals . Caroline Gans Combe. The
Conversation. 06/27/2023
[12] Kenya: Meta's appeal in Facebook content moderators case under
review . Radio France Internationale. 05/20/2024
[13] Who is afraid of anti-industrial criticism? Collectif Ruptures .
06/01/2024. collectifruptures.wordpress.com/
[14] Brochure at free price, available on request at La Lenteur, Le
Batz, 81140 Saint-Michel-de-Vax
[15] ST is powering the ongoing wars with chips. Stop Micro. 06/13/2024.
stopmicro38.noblogs.org
https://oclibertaire.lautre.net/spip.php?article4235
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