Born as an electronic bracelet to be used attached to the paw of an animal or the wing of a bird in danger of extinction in order to control migration, nesting places, etc., they have now been transformed into regular instruments in the functioning of State repression.

In the US these sophisticated electronic bracelets are now being attached to the wrists of prisoners who are then let out on parole or bail in order to control their movements. These can then be followed through a radar screen at the local police station. An alarm goes off when the bracelet holder passes a certain point in the area allocated to him.

So an object that came out of technological research to meet the demands of the environmentalists and animal liberationists to put an end to branding, drug injections, etc., aimed at "controlling endangered species in order to safeguard them from extinction", has now become a highly sophisticated instrument of repression.

Now biomedical research has taken a step further. Bio-medic Data Systems of Maywood, New Jersey have, after seven years' research, produced a "transponder" capsule that contains a chip or integrated circuit the size of a grain of rice that can be injected into laboratory mice and other animals subcutaneously and remain there as a system of laboratory identification considered more efficient and less "cruel" than branding, labelling, etc.

The transponder capsules are charged with a simple ten digit code. A scanner alongside the computer (Elams system) allows the programme in the chip to be "activated" by using a low frequency radio signal. So every "chip-mouse" can have its own internal file today. Tomorrow who knows how this new technological gem will be put to use by the forces of animal and human repression. There are 34 billion numerical combinations possible. Experiments were carried out by Sandoz Research Institute in East Hanover, New Jersey to test the chip for skin reactions, causing tumours, etc., and they have now been approved by the GLP (Good Laboratory Practice). Fifty research centres in the US and Europe have already adopted the Elams system.

These examples show the increasing tendency of technology to produce systems of control, first introducing them through the vehicle of official environmentalist and conservationist channels and having them accepted as "technological progress" to alleviate animal suffering, then applying them in the wider field of repression and social control. In this light the attacks that are continuing and spreading against the animal research laboratories take on a fuller significance. Consciously or not they are striking the centres of experimentation in technological and biological control that in a not too far off tomorrow will take the place of the truncheons and prison walls of today.

[ Insurrection, Anarchist Magazine, Issue Six, 1989, London, UK ]

Insurrectionary Anarchists of the Coast Salish Territories