What is "countercurrent"

Countercurrent \Coun"ter*cur`rent\ (koun"t?r-k?r`-rent), a. Running in an opposite direction.

Countercurrent \Coun"ter*cur`rent\, n. A current running in an opposite direction to the main current.

a. Running in an opposite direction. n. A current that flows against the prevailing one.

1. n. a stretch of turbulent water in a river or the sea caused by one current flowing into or across another current [syn: rip, riptide, tide rip, crosscurrent]

2. actions counter to the main group activity; "political crosscurrents disrupted the conference" [syn: crosscurrent]

Countercurrent may refer to:

• Countercurrent pool
• Countercurrent exchange
• Countercurrent chromatography
• Equatorial Counter Current
• two political party factions in Italy:
  • Countercurrent, a faction of the Communist Refoundation Party
  • Countercurrent, a faction of The People of Freedom

Countercurrent is a small, Italian, trotskyist political party. It used to be a faction within the Communist Refoundation Party.

The group emerged in 2006 as a split from Communist Project, when their leader Marco Ferrando decided to leave the party in order to form his own Workers' Communist Party. For the 24–27 July 2008 congress the faction formed a common list with The Ernesto, another minority faction, and obtained 7.7% of the delegates. In that occasion they supported the election of Paolo Ferrero, leader of the Refoundation in Movement- Being Communists motion, as party secretary, thus joining for the first time the majority of the party.

In 2010 the faction embraced the Committee for a Workers' International.

In 2013, the party was the most important promoter of the massive Genoa Public Transportation Strike, that went on for a week and was considered the biggest non-general strike of the year.

Countercurrent (Controcorrente) was a liberal faction within The People of Freedom (PdL), a political party in Italy.

The faction was launched in October by some 30 liberals who opposed Giulio Tremonti's policies as economy minister. They included Antonio Martino, Giorgio Stracquadanio, Guido Crosetto, Isabella Bertolini, Giuseppe Cossiga and Giuseppe Moles. Some of them were also members of Christopher Columbus Foundation (Martino), while others were considered Silvio Berlusconi's loyalists (Stracquadanio).

More specifically, members of Countercurrent were committed liberals who were uncomfortable with Tremonti's policies (dirigist, in their view) and wanted a return to Forza Italia's early libertarianism and to the so-called "spirit of 1994", the year of Berlusconi's entry to politics.

Somewhat surprisingly, on 3 November 2011, Stracquadanio and Bertolini signed an open letter to Berlusconi along with four recent splinters from the party ( Roberto Antonione, Giustina Destro, Fabio Gava and Giancarlo Pittelli) in which they asked Berlusconi to step down and made a call for a new executive.

In July 2012 Martino, Moles, Deborah Bergamini, Enrico La Loggia and Gennario Malgieri criticized the PdL's support of Monti Cabinet, which had succeeded to Berlusconi's government in November 2011, while Straquadanio left the party altogether. In September Tremonti left the PdL and Martino returned into Berlusconi's inner circle. In December Crosetto and Cossiga left the PdL and joined Brothers of Italy (FdI). Both the PdL and FdI stopped supporting Monti's government.