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In Solidarity
Binu Mathew
Editor
www.countercurrents.org


Washington-Backed “Rebels” Surrender US Arms To Al Qaeda In Syria
By Bill Van Auken

http://www.countercurrents.org/auken041114.htm

Washington’s strategy in its three-month-old war in Iraq and Syria appeared to suffer another humiliating blow over the weekend as one of the last remaining strongholds of US-backed “moderate rebels” in the northwestern Syrian province of Idlib fell to the Nusra Front, the Syrian affiliate of Al Qaeda


How To Shrink The Economy Without Crashing It: A Ten-Point Plan
By Richard Heinberg

http://www.countercurrents.org/heinberg041114.htm

Managed contraction would almost certainly yield better outcomes than chaotic collapse—for everyone, elites included. If there is a theoretical pathway to a significantly smaller economy that does not pass through the harrowing wasteland of conflict, decay, and dissolution, we should try to identify it. The following modest ten-point plan is an attempt to do so


Climate Depression Is For Real. Just Ask A Scientist
By Madeleine Thomas

http://www.countercurrents.org/thomas041114.htm

It’s only natural then that many climate scientists and activists often feel an extreme pressure to keep their emotions in check, even when out of the spotlight. For activists like Mike Tidwell — founder of the nonprofit Chesapeake Climate Action Network and author of The Ravaging Tide: Strange Weather, Future Katrinas, and the Race to Save America’s Coastal Cities — part of being on the front lines means being outspoken and passionate about the cause. But while activism may be a more forgiving platform to express emotional stresses than within the scientific community, the personal toll of the work goes largely undiscussed


The Pressure To Escalate: The Phantasmagoric World of Washington
By Tom Engelhardt

http://www.countercurrents.org/engelhardt041114.htm

You know what I’m talking about -- two issues on the lips of politicians nationwide, at the top of the news 24/7, and constantly trending on social media: ISIS and Ebola. Think of them as the two horsemen of the present American apocalypse


AFSPA And The 15th Year of Non-Violent Heroic Struggle of Irom Sharmia
By Ravi Nitesh

http://www.countercurrents.org/nitesh041114.htm

It is not an easy task that Irom Sharmila is doing. For the courts, when it was an ‘attempt to suicide’, for Irom Sharmila, probably it was one of the ‘reason’ to ‘live’. She is not aimless like many of us are. Unlike us, she has a reason and thought process and a decided goal for her life. Putting the life on fast with all known intention, motivation and clear objective towards making a society more humane, cannot be said as attempt to suicide, instead it is something that we all need in our lives


Doctoring History For Political Goals: Origin of Caste System in India
By Ram Puniyani

http://www.countercurrents.org/puniyani041114.htm

The rigidity and cruelty of the caste system and untouchability became very intense from the post-Vedic to Gupta period. Later, new social movements like Bhakti, directly, and Sufi, indirectly, partly reduced the intensity of the caste oppression and untouchability. This doctoring of the history by Sangh ideologues is motivated by their political agenda and tries to hide the truth


Sikh Carnage of 1984: Justice Not Compensation
By People's Union for Democratic Rights

http://www.countercurrents.org/pudr041114.htm

People's Union for Democratic Rights (PUDR) condemns the BJP government for reducing the quest for justice of the victims of anti Sikh carnage of 1984 into a cruel joke by engaging in competition for paying higher blood money to them. On the 30th year of 1984 sikh carnage, the Union Minister for Home Affairs, Rajnath Singh, announced that compensation to families of the victims killed was to be enhanced from existing Rs 3 lakhs to Rs 5 lakhs


Emerging Political Discourse And Marginalization of Dalits In India
By Dr. M. Mohibul Haque

http://www.countercurrents.org/haque041114.htm

This article is an attempt to burst the myths and deconstruct the truth/truths constructed by the ruling elites. This exercise of building a political discourse with the support of the so-called mainstream media is posing a threat to democracy, justice, peace, and freedom and therefore, it must be resisted before the resistance itself is criminalized