May 31, 2024
kites began in 2020 through the collaboration of the late Revolutionary Initiative in Canada and the Organization of Communist Revolutionaries (OCR) in the US. Since then, we’ve published eight issues that have been crucial to training up a new generation of communist cadre, addressing the strategic challenges of making revolution, and planting a red flag in opposition to postmodernism, the Left, and opportunism of all stripes. The organizations behind kites have also changed in that time period, with Revolutionary Initiative no longer in existence but with comrades from it joining with others in forming the (New) Communist Party of Canada ((N)CPC). With those developments, there is now a need for separate journals that address the particular challenges of making revolution in Canada and the US, two countries with many similarities but also many differences. Furthermore, while both the (N)CPC and the OCR are united in the goal of communist revolution, there are substantial differences between them in how they conceptualize achieving that goal. Interested readers can study the (N)CPC’s Political Program and the OCR’s Manifesto to understand those differences.
Readers of kites can expect the content it is known for to continue in two new journals, one from the US and one from Canada. We will be posting announcements of those two new journals on kites-journal.org as soon as they are up and running. For the time being, kites readers should look to the websites of the (N)CPC (ncpc-npcc.ca) and OCR (ocrev.org) for more information or statements from those organizations.
Our intention is to see the kites website remain online for some time to come, so our readers do not need to worry about losing access to kites online content. And readers can expect many of the articles on kites-journal.org that have not yet been published in print to be made available in the new journals. Other than the announcements of these two journals, no new content will be posted on kites-journal.org. As for the hard-copy editions, while we cannot speak to the availability of the print edition in the future, for now kites readers can still acquire hard-copies from online booksellers like Burning Books out of Buffalo, New York or Kersplebedeb in Montreal, Quebec.
In bidding this project farewell, let us agree with Mao that “everything under heaven is in utter chaos; the situation is excellent,” while adding that it’s only ever through the subjective factor of communist revolutionaries that we can make the most of such a situation. That’s part of the function that kites played, and that’s what the new journals spinning off from it will seek to continue to do.
-Amil K., Kenny Lake, and the kites editorial committee
kites-journal.org 