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In the June 17 elections, anti-austerity Coalition of the Radical Left (SYRIZA) came a close second with 26.9% of the vote. The right-wing New Democracy came first with more than 29%, amid huge blackmail and threats from major governments and financial institutions, and will now attempt to form a coalition government.
Breaking through a banner

Protesters tore through a giant run-through banner that read "free the refugees" as part of World Refugee Day rally in Melbourne. Below the slogan, symbolic bars were broken representing the breaking of the fences imprisoning refugees.

The opening salvo in a promised, summer of protest by Quebec鈥檚 student movement was delivered at the annual, Montreal Grand Prix auto race and surrounding festivities from June 7 to 10. Hundreds, sometimes thousands, of students and their allies used the high-profile event to press demands for a freeze in post-secondary tuition fees and an end to police and state repression.
Laura Jane Grace

News that a popular front-man is about to become a front-woman might not stir such intense buzz if we lived in a world that was truly sexually liberated. Hell, it might not even be 鈥渘ews,鈥 just another instance of an individual becoming more like the person they envision themselves to be; end of story.

The NSW Teachers Federation released the statement below on June 18.

鈥淚f the Greeks had done the right thing, they wouldn鈥檛 be in the mess they鈥檙e in today.鈥 The argument that the Greek people brought austerity packages down on their own necks keeps getting louder.
Egypt's second-round presidential elections between ex-regime figure Ahmed Shafiq and Muslim Brotherhood candidate Mohamed Morsi will go ahead after the High Constitutional Court (HCC) ruled on June 14 that Shafiq's candidacy was constitutional. The ruling declared that the Political Disenfanchisement Law, which barred ex-members of Mubarak's National Democratic Party (NDP) from holding high government offices, was unconstitional.
鈥淣early three years into their country's worst crisis in modern times, life goes on as normal for Greece's super-rich,鈥 . The article said that, 鈥渟ince the outbreak of Greece's runaway debt crisis, its moneyed class has been notable more by its absence than presence鈥.
Criticism of Latin America鈥檚 radical governments has become common currency among much of the international left. While none have been exempt, Ecuador鈥檚 government of President Rafael Correa has been a key target. But a problem with much of the criticism directed against Correa is that it lacks any solid foundation and misdirects fire away from the real enemy. Correa was elected president in 2006 after more than a decade of mostly indigenous-led rebellions against neoliberalism.
The Irish government successfully bullied a majority of those who turned out for the May 31 referendum into voting 鈥測es鈥 to changing the constitution to allow the government to ratify the European Union's pro-austerity Fiscal Treaty. But it would be a mistake to read it as a ringing endorsement for their austerity policies. Many of those who voted did so with a gun to their head and no enthusiasm for the policies contained in the treaty. After all the blackmail and bullying, the Yes side could only manage a 60% Yes vote with a 50% turnout.
SYRIZA activist with flag

In the June 17 elections, anti-austerity Coalition of the Radical Left (SYRIZA) came a close second with 26.9% of the vote.

West Papua has been rocked by a wave of shootings and repression in recent weeks that has left many parts of the occupied nation in a state of fear. Indonesian security forces went on a rampage in the highlands town of Wamena, killing one person, injuring many others and destroying property on June 6. Human rights group Tapol said on June 8 the soldiers were seeking revenge for an attack by locals on two colleagues who had run over a three-year-old child with a motorbike. Locals killed one of the soldiers on the motorbike and the other was severely beaten.