WORLD WORLDWIDE FRANCE News Journal Update - (en) France, OCL, CA #328 - Big BROTHER - by Alternating Current (ca, de, fr, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

 Vinci Autoroutes polices its "men in yellow" who risk their lives ---- At the

beginning of the summer of 2022, before the first departures on vacation, Vinci
Autoroutes launched a campaign to raise awareness of the safety of its agents.
"Every week on average, an intervention vehicle is hit on the network," she
reveals. The figures are frightening: in 2022, 168 accidents involved motorway
workers on the entire French network, 76 vehicles were hit, four agents killed.
This is the first year since 2017 that "men in yellow" have died in intervention.
---- Faced with this terrible observation, the concessionary companies are not
content to make motorists aware. As "Mediacités" discovered, Vinci Autoroutes,
the subsidiary of the construction group which operates half of the French
motorways, is conducting an internal hunt for work accidents among its motorway
agents, between financial incentives which raise questions and video surveillance
... especially with the help of drones!
"Since the accident of April 5, 2022 where a motorway worker was mowed down on
the A9 by a heavy goods vehicle, surveillance has been permanent, denounces a
representative of the staff of Autoroutes du Sud de la France (ASF), a subsidiary
of Vinci Autoroutes. The management watches the videos of the cameras placed
along the tracks and penalties fall if the worker has not precisely respected the
procedure.»
This type of procedure is set to become recurrent on the ASF network: according
to a confidential document presented to the social and economic committee (CSE)
in October 2022, 22 drone remote pilots have been trained. The flying cameras
will be added to those fixed already installed on the network, in order to "have
images of an unplanned event".
According to information collected by "Médiacités" within ASF, several dismissals
followed disciplinary procedures in which video recordings during security
interventions are used against the employee. "These practices, in our view, are
illegal. ASF does not have the authorizations of the competent administrations",
denounces a staff representative.
"The workers are constantly monitored and geolocated, denounces another union
representative at Vinci Autoroutes. They no longer know what they have the right
to do or not to do. Are these practices specific to the motorway branch of the
construction giant? At SAPN, a subsidiary of the Sanef group, a representative of
FO assures us that "we are not yet in the use of video surveillance, but
disciplinary procedures are multiplying against the workers.»
The changes in the number and age of motorway workers also make them increasingly
incompatible with the reality on the ground. At ASF, since 2013, the staff
working on the tracks has decreased by 23%, i.e. 322 positions eliminated, mainly
retirements not replaced. A situation that is not unique to the Vinci subsidiary:
since the privatization of motorway companies in 2006, the workforce has fallen
by 30% on average. As a result, the "men in yellow" are increasingly working
alone, where they were in teams of two or even three a few years ago.
Unsurprisingly, the areas of intervention have expanded. At Escota (subsidiary of
Vinci Autoroutes which operates the motorways between Marseille and Nice),
on-call patrol officers now cover a perimeter of 150 kilometers, whereas
previously their sector extended over about sixty kilometers. "When you are
alone, you are over 50 years old and you have to travel 300 kilometers at night
to assist a motorist, it can become complicated," said a staff representative.
In fact, driving at night, running to intervene in the middle of traffic or
jumping over the parapet to take shelter in an emergency requires good physical
condition. However, according to an accountant's report presented to the ASF CSE,
more than half of the employees, all positions combined, are over 51 years old
and the aging of the employees is particularly marked among the workers.
Sources: mediacites.fr

413 billion euros more for the army!
On January 20, 2023, the president presented his wishes to the armed forces. And
he announced a fabulous check for the military. The "military programming law"
will give an additional 413 billion euros to the army over the next 7 years, or
57 billion per year! The order of magnitude is dizzying: the total expenditure of
the French State per year represents around 500 billion euros all inclusive. The
army is becoming a state within a state, whose budget has doubled in recent
years, while the urgency would be to move towards disarmament and peace. With
this colossal sum, Macron announces that he wants to develop "a war economy".
It's cold in the back.

Recall that in December 2022, Macron passed the so-called LOPMI law (Orientation
and Programming Law of the Ministry of the Interior). It plans to distribute 15
billion euros to law enforcement over the next five years, in addition to the
already huge budget of the Ministry of the Interior. This law provides for the
creation of 8,500 additional police and gendarme posts, 200 new gendarmerie
brigades, eleven new mobile force units "specialized in rapid intervention", and
the doubling of the number of police officers in the public space.
The French government cannot find 12 billion euros a year to make up for the
alleged deficit in the pension system, but has no problem freeing up hundreds of
billions for the repressive and military forces. The government seems to be
testing just how much contempt and lying it can go without causing a widespread
outburst.
Source: counter-attack.net

French police spying practices
Against the collective Bassines Non Merci
The spokesperson for the Bassines Non Merci collective, Julien Le Guet, was once
again the target of a surveillance modus operandi worthy of the most sensitive
criminal investigations. Thursday January 19, 2023, his mechanic found a small
black box meticulously concealed under the left front axle of his truck. After
verification, he is confirmed that this device is a tracer, numbered "2919",
which allows the police to geolocate it in real time.
This new episode of the "Watergate of the Marais poitevin", which began in March
2022 following the discovery of a set of military surveillance equipment in front
of the home of Julien Le Guet's father, confirms the intensification of the
criminalization and repression of environmental activists. After having initially
denied having knowledge of this material, the prefect Dubée had to admit
pitifully three days after the discovery of the barbouzerie material, that it was
material belonging to the national police.
In barely a year and a half we have already counted more than fifty free hearings
of activists, a dozen accused with files of hundreds of pages, a note from
territorial intelligence and a threat to dissolve the Earth Uprisings , hidden
cameras, or wiretapping, shadowing, searches and interrogations
Against the Tanneries and the free district of Lentillères in Dijon
Two video surveillance devices camouflaged in boxes hung on the top of electric
poles were discovered in October 2022. They pointed towards accesses to the
Tanneries and Lentillères and made it possible to film the streets, parking areas
and pedestrian entrances to the places of business and residence. These devices
were composed of a camera with an adjustable globe and a data transmission
antenna, they were powered by the electric pole. After the first moment of
incredulity, research has confirmed long-term surveillance.
Private and google street view photos attest to the presence of such cameras
since at least 2019, over periods of several months. After the discovery of the
device located at the bottom of the impasse des Tanneries, the one located in
front of the Lentillères (rue Amiral Pierre) disappeared under the action of an
intervention group sent by the intelligence services.
Contact: stopsurveillance@riseup.net
Sources: Press releases

Bure "criminals": an almost general release on appeal
The judges released 4 of the 7 anti-nuclear activists from Bure (Meuse),
prosecuted since 2018 for participating in a demonstration; a decision which
contrasts with the enormous means released by the State in this procedure.
Four years of investigation, wiretapping, computer searches, a specially
commissioned gendarmerie team, an investigating judge and a prosecutor mobilized
almost full time... The enormous resources released - 1 million euros - in the
case of opponents of the Cigéo project to bury nuclear waste, in Bure (Meuse),
appear disproportionate in view of the verdict pronounced on January 26 by the
Court of Appeal of Nancy (Meurthe-et-Moselle).
The judges have decided to release four of the seven anti-nuclear activists
prosecuted since 2018. The other three are sentenced to four months of simple
suspension for participation in a crowd, with mention in the criminal record.
They risked sentences ranging from eight months in prison suspended to twelve
months in prison.
"We are relieved by these releases that we have been asking for too long", reacts
Maître Florian Régley, one of the defense lawyers. "Remember that one of these
released people was deprived of their liberty for seven and a half months, and
that the others were banned from seeing each other for three years!»
Source: reporterre.net

Collaboration between the mayor of Reims and Thalès

StreetPress revealed the collaboration between the municipal power of Reims and
the French defense giant, Thalès. From 2021, the municipal police used a video
algorithm using artificial intelligence to analyze its citizens.
If you have already strolled around Notre-Dame de Reims Cathedral (51), you may
have been analyzed by an artificial intelligence. The "Savari" tool, designed by
the French giant Thalès, was integrated into the surveillance cameras of the
agglomeration and used by the municipal police, for a one-year experiment. The
goal: automatically detect groups or intrusions, and identify weapons or
vehicles. Unlike conventional video surveillance, this type of tool can lead to
"massive processing of personal data, sometimes including sensitive data",
explains the CNIL (Commission Nationale de l'Informatique et des Libertés) in a
report published in July 2022.
To the chagrin of Reims and opposition politicians, Arnaud Robinet, mayor of the
city since 2014, affiliated with the Horizons movement of E. Philippe would most
certainly have decided on this collaboration with Thalès during a seminar (fair
for mayors and local authorities) during which companies "merchants of death"
hold stands to flirt with elected officials.
In fact, A. Robinet anticipated Article 7 adopted on January 24 by the Senate
which authorizes these experiments with cameras equipped with algorithms from
this year for the 2024 Olympics in Paris.
It is no coincidence that Thalès managed to sell its tool to the "city of
coronations", particularly fond of surveillance cameras. Arnaud Robinet made it a
campaign argument. Since 2014, no less than 218 additional cameras have been
installed in the Reims conurbation, which only had 36. police station where 120
officers observe the images 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Arnaud Robinet had to pay the price to acquire the brand new product from the
aerospace giant. In the city budget, for its second term which began in 2020, no
less than seven million euros are dedicated to investments for video surveillance
and equipment for the municipal police.
Source: streetpress.com

A homeless man sent to prison for squatting in an abandoned house!
According to an article in the "Parisien" published on January 31, 2023, "a
homeless person was sent to prison for having squatted in the house of an elderly
person who went to nursing home".
Aged 28, on the street for several weeks and in an irregular situation, this
homeless Algerian was sentenced in immediate appearance on Monday January 30 to 8
months in prison by the criminal court of Évry, for having squatted an empty
pavilion in Savigny-sur-Orge and for having previously used a stolen vehicle to
sleep in at night (precisely for this reason he was convicted of concealment).
French justice has therefore decided to punish and imprison a person who
preferred to sleep in a vehicle and then in an empty house rather than sleeping
on the street in the middle of January. Class justice, which is also racist
justice, once again shows its true face: preserving and privileging private
property rather than helping the poor.
According to the journal of the "Parisien", it is "the vigilance of the
neighbors, charged by their neighbor who left for a retirement home to monitor
the pavilion, which made it possible to put an end to this invasion of the home
on Saturday"... So already, this is not a home invasion, since the house was
empty and in fact abandoned. Then, how to decently oppose the occupation of an
empty house by a person who otherwise has no other solution than to sleep in the
street?
In France since 2016, the homeless man indicated during his trial that before
occupying this house, he had been sleeping in a car for about twenty days: "It
was really too cold... That's why I'm entered this house. (...) I observed and
saw that there had been no light for 15 or 20 days. That's why I came in. I
thought she was abandoned.»
It turns out that this house was indeed abandoned, but the judge replied: "But
this house is not abandoned! She has an owner and neighbors watching over her. A
fallow garden does not mean that a house is abandoned. The fallow garden, not
necessarily, but an emptied and abandoned house because its owner is in a
retirement home, yes, that means that the house is abandoned.
And as long as there are empty houses and people sleeping on the streets, the
squat will be necessary and justified.

As long as there are people who own several dwellings, and others who own nothing
at all, the squat will be necessary and justified to bridge the gap of social
inequalities.
Source: en.squat.net

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