Marching Plague: Germ
Warfare and Global Public Health by Critical Art
Ensemble.
Autonomedia, New York, 2006, 148pp., $9.95 /
£7.99 (pbk), ISBN 1-57027-178-X.
That Marching Plague made its way into print, and performance, at all is something of a triumph for anti-warfare-state defiance in the face of considerable odds. Its appearance, originally due in the United States in the late autumn of 2004, had to be deferred because the Federal Bureau of Investigation held all the authors’ materials, so that they had to reconstruct their research. The associated legal case became another strand in the story to be told, reinforcing their perceptions about the administration’s paranoia and persecution of dissent. Details may be found in Appendix I, ‘When Thought becomes Crime’, and at the defence fund website: <www.caedefensefund.org> (accessed 02 February 2007). Appendix II continues with reflections on the case and how it relates to the wide swathe of crimes considered terrorist, with dire implications for critics of the present regime in the United States.
The main thrust of the book, however, is to explore and expose the way
the fear engendered by the idea of ‘bio-terror’ has been fostered and utilised
to divert money, expertise and attention from useful objects, especially public
health, into wasteful and unnecessary research efforts, at the same time as
strengthening authoritarian tendencies in the state. This process is
investigated and analysed in depth, with many examples, statistics adduced to
back up the assertions made, and carefully referenced documentation. In places
the argument may become a little repetitive, but this is acceptable when there
are sometimes complex points that need to be hammered home to build up an
overall convincing case. This the book successfully does, at least with respect
to its powerful critique of present US policy and its consequences, actual and
threatened.
Those who have campaigned and warned against biological warfare (BW)
research since long before the invention of bio-terror will probably be less
impressed when it comes to the authors’ tendency to be dismissive of the
dangers of this type of weapon. Although they refer to the historical record
(with some photographs), they fail generally to make the distinction between
the risks posed by government-led and -financed preparations for war on the one
hand and what might be done by terrorist groups on the other. Thus in a related
film presentation by the Critical Art Ensemble (CAE) at the Institute of
Contemporary Arts, London, on 29 July 2006, an alleged re-enactment of BW sea
trials during Operation Cauldron near Stornoway in 1952 was ludicrously out of
scale and instead of confronting, rather trivialised the reality and
implications of what was done. It was still useful, however, for attracting an
audience, to many of whom it was no doubt a revelation that such things went on
at all, and starting discussion in which among other points the war/terror
distinction was acknowledged.
It is not difficult to agree that when exhorted by those in power to be
very afraid, a modicum of scepticism is advisable, and that we should rather fear
power itself. The book’s analysis clearly demonstrates the intensification of
repression and authoritarianism, along with the detriment to public health
nationally and internationally as the US becomes a ‘proto-fascist
nation’ making nightmares into reality in perpetuity for
profit. It extends the indictment to those who benefit and are complicit,
targeting notably the near-ubiquitous complacency of academic institutions
faced with and infiltrated by escalating militarisation.
This situation nevertheless gives a pointer to the kind of remedial
action that might be undertaken, in the hope that it may not be too late, for
the aim is not mere negative criticism or defensive pleading but to bring
forward a number of firm proposals. First and foremost the task is to enhance
public awareness, leading to possible tactics of resistance and alternative
ways of proceeding, of which practical examples are given. Ideally, the authors
suggest, these might culminate in a general strike of all scientists in the life
sciences and the creation of a popular front around the demand to exclude the
military, and for declassification of disease research, ultimately to put
people before profits.
Remote as such a prospect may seem, there are at least other signs of
dissent even in the US, and the CAE has not been without support in its
courageous struggle against the dominant ideology.
E. A. Willis
March 2007
This is how the BBC summarised the Carella Incident: in advance of a
Radio 4 programme broadcast in 2005, after they became aware of historians’
discoveries in the files:-
Bubonic plague tested off coast
Scotland was used as a testing ground for weapons containing
bubonic plague, according to secret defence papers which have been made public.
“A
fishing boat crew from Fleetwood in England
The
exposure happened during MoD tests of biological weapons in 1952.
Pontoons
containing live monkeys and guinea pigs were moored off the coast of Lewis and
clouds of bubonic plague were exploded above them.
But a
trawler unwittingly steamed into the danger zone and Ministry of Defence ships
shadowed the craft for weeks to monitor any emergency calls about the health of
the crew.
All
documents about the affair, apart from a sanitised Admiralty report, were
ordered to be destroyed and the incident remained secret until now.
The tests
were part of a biological weapons research programme based at Porton Down in
Wiltshire conducted between the second world war and the mid-1950s.
However,
islanders said the tests were an open secret locally at the time.”
[The
assertion in the last sentence is extremely dubious. Although islanders were to
some extent inured to militaristic intrusions and, perhaps, to the apparent futility
of protesting against or questioning them – this was only 7 years after the war – there
were many who would have been horrified to know the details of these operations].
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| Cellar Head, site of the Carella incident, is marked |
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| Not that remote really |
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