Annual March for subtlety quietly observes 40th aniversary

Watch and think but do not speak

MCMASTER MCMURPHY

A group of demonstrators marked the 40th anniversary of the March for Subtlety by snaking their way through Winnipeg’s downtown core last Saturday to promote less obvious and clichéd forms of demonstration and dissent. It is uncertain when or where the march began, having no apparent route, and no clear end point for demonstrators to rally at.

“It wasn’t very obvious what was going on,” said by-stander Allan Fisk. “It was just something you had to pick up on, you know? You just sensed it.”

The crowd of demonstrators, interspersed with pedestrians on Winnipeg’s busy downtown sidewalks, carried no signs or banners, and substituted light-hearted small talk for the more traditional, and overbearingly loud, repetitive chants.

Through its 40 year history, the march has had some success in bringing nuance to the mainstream, with a hint of je ne se quoi.

“It’s the sense of self-satisfaction that I think gives this march value,” says march organizer Tyler Winton. “It makes me feel like I’m better than a lot of people that revert to clichéd tactics to prove a point. I like that.”

But, as is always the case in politics, not everyone understands or agrees with the sentiments of the March for Subtlety.

“What the Hell does ‘subtlety’ mean?” asks Gay Pride Parade Coordinator, Darren Forest.

Many older generation activists are troubled by the march as well.

“It’s an abomination,” says local activist and perennial mayoral candidate, Nick Ternette. “There’s no bull-horns. There’s no orange smocks. If one of the organizers was here I’d ask them, ‘What do you want? When do you want it?’.

The Annual March for Subtlety began in September, 1966, in San Francisco, and has since spread across the US and Canada, and Western Europe at its own pace. In the tumultuous year of 1968, Chicago’s March for Subtlety, that city’s first, was attacked by mounted police. Tensions were high after riots surrounding the Democratic National Convention left Chicago’s streets bloodied and burned. Chicago Police grew frustrated with the marchers, unable to distinguish them from normal pedestrians, and began attacking anyone who made the slightest of movements.

Winnipeg has observed the annual event since 1970, and its history in this city is comparably less violent. In its 36 year history in Winnipeg, only 17 people have been arrested, 12 of which came in 2002, during Mayor Glen Murray’s “Drive Home the Freakin’ Obvious” campaign.