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Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the June 22, 2000
issue of Workers World newspaper
-------------------------Family, comrades, co-workers say farewell to Key Martin
By Deirdre Griswold
New York
With so much of the world seething under the heavy burden of U.S. imperialist oppression, the progressive movement here can ill afford the loss of even one person. And when that person is as tireless and revolutionary as Key Martin was, the loss is nearly unbearable.
Martin died in March at the age of 56. In the weeks following, his comrades in the struggle and co-workers met in several cities to mourn his loss. An obituary summarizing his political life appeared in this newspaper at that time.
On June 11, the organizations he had helped to build--Workers World Party, Peoples Video Network, and the Inter national Action Center--joined by Work fairness, Haïti Progrès, the Workers Justice Committee (Detroit) and members of Key's family, met here at the Fashion Institute of Technology in an extraordinary testimonial to his life.
As speaker after speaker told of his generosity, his militancy and his enthusiasm for the class struggle, a picture emerged of what a communist aims to be. Key was loved by his fellow workers at the Time-Life chapter of the Newspaper Guild. Several of them reminisced about how, as chapter chairperson, he had relished fighting the bosses and had won many benefits for the workers.
Other trade unionists who had worked with Key recalled his militant support in both Detroit and New York for striking Detroit newspaper workers, who are still fighting to get their jobs back. One AFSCME local presented a check for $500 to a memorial fund to benefit the Peoples Video Network, which Key had founded, so that the documentary he had begun on the life of martyred South African Communist leader Chris Hani could be completed.
Key Martin was a member of Workers World Party for over 35 years, having joined its action arm, Youth Against War & Fascism, in the early 1960s. As each speaker added a piece to the mosaic of his life, it was clear that there wasn't a campaign or struggle carried out by the party that Key did not contribute to--as organizer, street tactician, videographer and militant. He also initiated quite a few projects of his own.
In the last year, he had been to Seattle for the World Trade Organization protests, had protested police murders on the streets of New York in the Amadou Diallo and Patrick Dorismond cases, had gone to South Africa to gather material about Chris Hani and about the AIDS epidemic, and had shown innumerable kindnesses to the people around him, despite chronic health problems.
Many speakers told of Key's devotion to his daughter, Tamara, who had been at his side at union negotiations and picket lines since the days when he carried her in a backpack, and of her older brother and sister, Alejandro and Evelyn. Poised and warm despite the emotional occasion, Tamara Martin spoke of her father with affection, humor and insight.
Despite Key's many years of political activity, it seemed that he only grew younger as time went by. As a leading member of a party with a keen analysis of international events, he never buried himself in provincial matters but was well aware of the counter-revolutionary setbacks in the USSR and Eastern Europe. Never for a moment, however, did this sap his energies or his cheerful enthusiasm. His confidence in the victory of the worldwide working class over capitalist slavery grew with his own involvement in the struggle.
Johnnie Stevens, Key's close collaborator in PVN, helped prepare a video on his work that was shown at the memorial. Those wishing to contribute to the Key Martin Memorial Fund can contact the Peoples Video Network at 39 West 14th St., New York, NY 10011, (212) 633-6646.
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