There is no alternative. We must rely on foreign direct investments and on the private sector to create jobs. Private is more 'efficient' than public. An entrepreneurial spirit will drive economic growth. These are just some of the mantras that we are exposed to on a daily basis from economic commentators, whom our mainstream media promote as 'experts'. They have a monopoly over our airwaves and newspapers, and use it to espouse their ideas as if they were common sense facts that are irrefutable.

In early June 2011, the official website of the Northern Ireland Assembly reported that the Minister for Social Development, Nelson McCausland of the DUP, had visited the region’s first 'virtual' street. The Executive Minister was in Dungannon’s Perry Street to inspect what the website described as a ‘Virtual Window Scheme’ that involved painting derelict properties and installing pictorial scenes into boarded-up window openings to create a 'living' appearance and street scene.

In a cross-post from Deterritorial Support Group, its Ebaumsworld Division discuss 'political hacktivism' and why it's all kicking off in cyberspace.

Arguments against gender quotas often revolve around the idea that quotas are undemocratic and discriminatory; the arguer in such instances seemingly failing to realise that our democracy already is undemocratic and discriminatory. Quotas are simply an attempt to right the (undemocratic, discriminatory) skew caused by the five Cs: Culture, Confidence, Cash, Childcare and Candidate selection, writes Anne O'Brian.

Debtocracy was released in April and went viral soon after - the producers claim over half a million people saw it in just the first five days of its release. Directed by Aris Chatzistefanou and Katerina Kitidi and featuring contributions from, amongst others, Costas Lapavitsas, David Harvey and Alan Badiou it 'seeks the causes of the debt crisis and proposes solutions hidden by the government and dominant media.' It outraged many members of the Greek government and media chiefs, who immediately went on the attack against the directors.

It's not that the financial class doesn't care about you; it's that it can't, writes Nyder O'Leary.

Alejo Cuervo celebrates the 'naïveté' of the indignados, saying, 'Only naïve people see the world with clarity.' Is he right?

(This piece was originally published in Spanish here.)

The Dublin City Arts Building was an art and cultural space open throughout the 1990s. The building was sold in 2002 to a conglomerate of property developers and has been empty since then. Following the property crisis the developers got into difficulty and the loans associated with the building were transferred to NAMA. A new campaign, Campaign for the Old City Arts Building (COCAB), which hopes to take back the building for educational and cultural activities, launches tomorrow, 11 June.

In a cross-post from Lenin's Tomb, Richard Seymour discusses class, chavs and the logic of meritocracy.

The Taoiseach's tears beg us to identify with him despite the politics of differentiation and exclusion his government represent. By Mairéad Enright.