For the past decade, on virtually every protest and picket line in the New York area, at demonstrations around the country and across the world, there was a lone figure, an older guy with a video camera, recording the action. He seemed like a permanent fixture on the "struggle scene." No, he wasn't a cop — quite the opposite. He was an employee at a large media company who also produced videos challenging corporate-media perspectives. Key Martin, founder of the People's Video Network, died on March l8 at the age of 56. His colleagues Ellen Andors and Bill Doares tell his story for MediaChannel.
Key Martin, who died on March 18, was an anti-war leader of the Vietnam era who went on to head up a chapter of the Newspaper Guild representing 1,200 workers at media giant Time Inc. Later he founded the People's Video Network, an alternative-media group that chronicled news of activists, political struggles and labor disputes.
Working as a page coder at Time Inc., in 1980 Key was elected chair of Newspaper Guild Local 3, now part of the Communications Workers of America. Representing over 1,200 workers, he rebuilt the union inside Time. "Key brought the union back to life," says Bill Doares, a co-worker at Time. "He waged an unending battle to make the company bring temporary workers on-staff and give them security and benefits. He negotiated revolutionary protection against automation-related layoffs. He organized support for the Local 32-B building service workers in their 1995 strike. He was on the front lines in the Daily News strike and in every labor picket line in this city."
He helped organize a national support campaign for workers at the Detroit News and Free Press, who were locked out of their jobs for over three years after a merger negotiated by the Gannett and Knight-Ridder newspaper chains. He brought union delegations from New York to Detroit, where they demonstrated in the streets side by side with the newspaper workers.
Beyond being a media worker, Key aspired to become a media maker. The increasing accessibility of affordable and higher-quality video cameras and editing equipment has made it possible for anyone to pick up a camera and make a documentary. Key saw this as an opportunity to build an ever-expanding network of activists who could share and use video materials in order to get the word out about the many pressing issues of the day. In 1993 Key set up the People's Video Network "to break the information blockade of big business media," as they say on their Web site, and create a truly alternative media organization, one that would counter what he saw as the increasing concentration of corporate control over the media and its power to shape people's opinions and feelings. PVN sent reporters all over the United States and all over the world. They have produced innumerable documentaries that have aired on public-access television, many of which are now available online.
Key was convinced that the corporate media — with its vast amounts of money, journalists all over the world, state-of-the-art equipment and control over mass-media outlets — was never going to air an unpopular point of view or story that threatened the status quo. Putting a lot of energy into waiting for their beneficence was a waste of time, so it was necessary to build your own network. As avenues for distribution expanded through public-access stations, satellite uplinks and the Internet, he worked tirelessly to make programming with a hard-hitting slant available. By organizing a network of video activists nationally and internationally, he sought to provide access for immediate coverage of events around the world from alternative perspectives. He believed in the power and possibility of centralized outlets, such as Free Speech TV and MediaChannel, to help alternative media-makers reach a broad audience.
Key saw the Peoples Video Network as a news organization, documenting such struggles as demonstrations against police brutality and labor strikes. He wanted to tell stories from the point of view of the people most affected, because he believed that their voices are rarely heard in the corporate media. He produced videos in Haiti, Cuba, the Democratic Peoples Republic of [North] Korea and, most recently, South Africa, where he spent several months in 1999. At the time of his death he was working on two major projects: one on the life of martyred South African Communist Party leader Chris Hani and another on the impact of HIV-AIDS in Africa.
His work was always integrated with political activism and his 30-year membership in the Workers World Party. His work with the People's Video Network and the International Action Center in New York often led him into the thick of militant actions, and he was tear-gassed many times. Last summer he covered the Seattle demonstrations against the World Trade Organization, where he was pepper-sprayed and shot with rubber bullets. Long afflicted with asthma, his health sometimes suffered, but he never slowed down.
With an underfunded organization and a militant political message, Key knew his videos wouldn't make it onto the networks. But he believed in the power of video to inspire people and move them to action, and he understood the necessity of network building to broaden the reach of non-corporate media and establish it as a true alternative.
- Ellen Andors, a producer at PVN and a professor of anthropology at Borough of Manhattan College, worked with Key Martin during the last seven years of his life. Bill Doares, a member of the Newspaper Guild, was a longtime friend of Key Martin and worked with him at Time Warner.
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