kites is a journal of communist theory and strategy for revolution focused on North America. It emerged in 2020 from the initiative of two organizations: Revolutionary Initiative (RI) in Canada and the Organization of Communist Revolutionaries (OCR) in the US. Its Editorial Committee is composed of a few communist revolutionaries from across North America, and operates as an independent entity.
Teble of Contents
Kick ‘em While They’re down, By the Kites Editorial Committee
Malcolm X Didn’t Dish Out Free Bean Pies: Distinguishing Charity and Social Work from Revolutionary Strategy, by kenny lake
Drawing blood: A Guide to Communist Agitation, by the Organization of Communist Revolutionaries (US)
Looking Back to Face Forward: The Role of Summation in the Revolutionary Process, by the Organization of Communist Revolutionaries (US)
catching fire: Participant Reflections on the Summer of Protest and Rebellion, by a reader of kites
When we ride on our enemies (part 3 of the specter series), by kenny Lake
From Postmodernist Nonsense to Plain Proletarian English: A Translation Guide, by a kites editor
a revolutionary people requires a revolutionary literature, the kites editorial committee
Read the Editorital ["Kick ’Em While They’re Down"]:
In the future, hopefully 2020 will go down in history as the year of squandered possibilities for revolutionary advance in the US. We say hopefully because the other possibility—2020 as the year when all the signs of impending catastrophe were present, but those who claimed commitment to ending injustice failed to find a way to stop the catastrophe—is all too likely.
For 2020 was a year of deepening and multiplying crises in the US—wildfires, hurricanes, and other climate-change-driven disasters breaking all previous records; COVID-19 laying bare the inability of the capitalist-imperialist system to provide decent healthcare, employment, or basic necessities for many; police brutality and the oppression of Black people leading to waves of massive nationwide rebellions and protests; and deep divisions in society, including among the bourgeoisie, expressed in a bitterly contested election and the ability of Trump to trample on the normal functioning of bourgeois politics. All of these crises present the possibilities for communists to expose the workings of capitalism-imperialism to millions; to organize the proletariat, rebellious youth, oppressed people, and those in the petty-bourgeoisie willing to betray their class into a revolutionary people; to wrest leadership of the resistance movements away from opportunists and reformists and divert resistance towards revolutionary objectives; and to repolarize class alliances in society in a way favorable to the revolutionary overthrow of the bourgeoisie.
But throughout 2020, there was no political force able to accomplish this. The simple reason is that there is no vanguard communist party in the US, or even a critical mass of communist cadre committed to forging one. Of course, stating this obvious but largely unacknowledged problem will not resolve it. So let’s examine the potential opportunities for revolutionary advances in the US and the ideological and political barriers that have stymied the development of the subjective forces for revolution.
Read the rest of the editorial here
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