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Continue reading How I Met Your Robot Mother: a Qbo 'First' (video)
How I Met Your Robot Mother: a Qbo 'First' (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 29 Dec 2011 20:15:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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WASHINGTON ? Fifty-nine percent of Hispanics oppose President Barack Obama's increased deportations of illegal immigrants, according to a new poll showing a weak spot in their otherwise broad support for the president in next year's election.
The survey by the Pew Hispanic Center released on Wednesday showed that just 27 percent of those polled approved of the administration's deportation policy, which immigrants' advocates have criticized as unnecessarily harsh.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement deported nearly 400,000 people during the fiscal year that ended in September, the largest number of removals in the agency's history. Government officials say they are targeting immigrants with criminal backgrounds.
Mark Lopez, associate director of the Pew Hispanic Center and author of the report, said that even though Hispanics reject Obama's deportation policy by a two-to-one ratio, they still support the president generally and show an affinity for his Democratic Party.
Latinos were among Obama's strongest supporters in 2008, but many have become disillusioned by the lack of employment opportunities and lack of progress on immigration reform.
The survey showed 49 percent of Hispanics approve of the job Obama is doing, down from 58 percent in 2010 but still higher than his 46 percent approval rating among the general population.
When asked which political party shows greater concern for Hispanics, 45 percent of respondents chose Democrats and 12 percent said Republicans.
Employment, education and medical care are the issues that Hispanics registered to vote in next November's presidential contest care the most about, the survey found.
Latinos have been disproportionately affected by the U.S. economy's downturn, with unemployment for the group running at 11 percent and many losing their homes. The country's average jobless rate is about 8.6 percent.
The support of Hispanic voters could prove a determining factor for Obama as he seeks re-election, especially in the critical states of Virginia, Nevada, Florida and North Carolina.
The survey was conducted between Nov. 3 and Dec. 7 in all 50 states and the District of Columbia with 1,220 adult Hispanics, 557 of whom are registered to vote.
Polling was conducted both in English and Spanish by landline and mobile telephones. The margin of error was plus or minus 3.6 percentage points for all Hispanics surveyed and 5.2 percentage points for Hispanics registered to vote.
____
Luis Alonso Lugo on Twitter: http://twitter.com/luisalonsolugo
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Got an Android handset for Christmas ? You could be one of the 3.7 million people who activated their device on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. A staggering amount considering that there?s 700,000 per day during ?normal weeks?. Andy Rubin has jumped onto Twitter to announced the stats himself.
Both Apple and Android saw 6.8 million activations on Christmas Day alone. Apple, according to Flurry.com, also did well. Although there?s no individual figure for iOS activations, we?re assuming the ?normal? 700,000 Android activations on the 24th and therefore 3 million on the 25th, which would leave 3.8 million iPhone / iPad activations on Christmas Day. There were also a quarter of a BILLION app downloads on the 25th across both platforms.
Links ? Twitter ? Flurry.com
Credit ? BGR.com
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/coolsmartphone/uJxV/~3/4ek8352kix0/
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ScienceDaily (Dec. 28, 2011) ? New research suggests that China's impressive feat of cutting Beijing's pollution up to 50 percent for the 2008 Summer Olympics had some help from Mother Nature. Rain just at the beginning and wind during the Olympics likely contributed about half of the effort needed to clean up the skies, scientists found. The results also suggest emission controls need to be more widely implemented than in 2008 if pollution levels are to be reduced permanently.
Reporting their findings December 12 in the journal Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, co-author atmospheric chemist Xiaohong Liu at the Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National laboratory said, "In addition to the emission controls, the weather was very important in reducing pollution. You can see the rain washing pollution out of the sky and wind transporting it away from the area."
Liu and colleague Chun Zhao at PNNL and at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing took advantage of the emission controls China put into play before and during the August Olympics to study the relative contributions of both planning and nature. Chinese officials restricted driving, temporarily halted pollution-producing manufacturing and power plants, and even relocated heavy polluting industries in preparation for the games.
To find out if the controls worked as well as people hoped, the researchers modeled the pollution and weather conditions in the area before, during and after the Olympics. They compared the model's results with measured amounts of pollution, which matched well.
Adding up the sources of pollution and the sinks that cleared it out, the team found that emission sources dropped up to a half in the week just before and during the Olympics. And while some pollution got washed out by rain or fell out of the sky, most of it got blown away by wind.
"They got very lucky. There were strong storms right before the Olympics," said Liu.
In addition to rain, wind also helped. Beijing is bordered on the south by urban areas and on the north by mountains, so wind blowing north would carry more pollution into the city. Examining the direction of the wind, the researchers saw that it generally blew south in the time period covering the Olympic period.
"The area we looked at is about 50 miles south. This suggests that emission controls need to be on a regional scale rather than just a local scale," said Liu.
The importance of regional controls meshes well with previous research on 2008 Olympics air quality that focused on nitrogen-based pollutants.
Next, the researchers will be examining the effect of pollution on other weather events and climate change in China. Pollutants are very small particles, and some suspect they might be causing fog to form rather than rain due to numerous pollution particles in China, Liu said.
This work was supported by the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science, the National Natural Science Foundation of China, and the Ministry of Environmental Protection of China.
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A Tale of Two Cities: Weimar and Washington - bit.ly/sEAr4x 
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Published: Dec. 26, 2011 at 12:56 PM
TOKYO, Dec. 26 (UPI) -- Japanese electronics giant Sony said it would sell its 50 percent stake in a flat-screen TV joint venture with Samsung Electronics for $939 million.
The firm said it would take a one-time $856 million loss for pulling out of the $2 billion state-of-the-art production facility in South Korea, as it turns more toward outsourcing in the television industry, where the firm was slow to move away from cathode ray tubes and embrace newer television technology, The New York Times reported Monday.
Sony now "aims to secure a flexible and steady supply of LCD panels from Samsung, based on market prices and without the responsibility and costs of operating a manufacturing facility," the company said in the statement.
Sony is currently losing billions of dollars in its television unit and overall lost $3 billion on revenue of $92 billion in its latest fiscal year.
Samsung, in contrast, had revenues of $134 billion and profits of $14 billion in its latest fiscal year.
Source: http://pheed.upi.com/click.phdo?i=596ff171a3a4d2aca2d83fc810ecdb01
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There's not many things worse than when your new imported tech toy is hobbled by teething issues. Just over a week since its launch and Sony's great portable hope has been gifted its second firmware update. Version 1.51 can be grabbed through your PC, PS3 or the Vita itself and promises to fix issues with "game progress" -- mentioning launch title Dynasty Warriors: Next in particular. However, gamers have already figured out that playing through the title offline side-steps the software hiccups that this patch hopes to remedy. Early adopters can hit up the system update option to ensure their machines remain in peak condition or hit up the source for the PC link.
[Thanks Adam]
PS Vita gets second firmware update, nixes software bugs originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 27 Dec 2011 06:08:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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As the Canadian government and its provincial equivalents take part in the global push for austerity, its after effects have significantly strained the fiscal and political dimensions of municipal governance. More than a year after right-wing populism swept through the City of Toronto, the agenda of the Rob Ford Administration has shown itself to be as administratively vacuous as economically delusional. Notwithstanding reality, however, public sector workers still continue to suffer from widespread resentment and political antipathy. This is why Ford and council, with the support of Toronto and Canada's ruling classes, continues to be so forceful with respect to layoffs, service cuts, asset sell-offs and so on. Despite Rob Ford's calamitous slide in popularity, significant reforms are threatening to fundamentally overhaul the delivery and quality of public services in the city.
In preparation for a major showdown with public sector workers in Toronto ? one of the few remaining bastions of union strength and workplace precedent-setters in Canada ? the City appears hell-bent on a 2012 lockout as CUPE Locals' 79 and 416's contracts expire at the end of 2011. Rob Ford has unmistakably revealed where the ?fat? now lies: ?The gravy is in the number of employees we have at City Hall.? Having been unable to find any evidence of irresponsible spending, inefficient service delivery and unproductive workers, city employees and the users of its services are now enemy number one at City Hall. Since taking office Toronto's public service has already been reduced by more than 2,300 workers, mostly from leaving vacancies unfilled, including the recent announcement of 1,200 layoffs, with plans to further reduce the city's workforce by another 5000 positions over the duration of Rob Ford's term.
Ford has revealed in the year since his election that he's ideologically fixated on ?Selling the City,? and so despite the rhetoric of ?efficiencies? the cuts keep piling up. As budget consultations have heated up in the months preceding Council's January 2012 final vote, it has been revealed that the City is sparing no effort to reduce services and delivery standards, layoff employees and undermine the social infrastructure of the city.
Recent plans for cuts include: plans to close three city-run daycares and seven community pools; sub-contract the private sector to build the Eglinton-Scarborough LRT (in part pushed by the Ontario Liberals' ?alternative financing and procurement? P3 agency[1]); contract-out snow ploughing, salting, street sweeping and road work (affecting 70 permanent positions and 170 seasonal positions); cut 12 after-school care and 58 student nutritional programs; eliminate no-charge recreational programs for underserviced children, youth and seniors at 22 priority centres; close 12 community centres and eliminate nearly 60 per cent of the city's full-time youth outreach workers from 29 to 12 (affecting roughly 180 positions); slash sixty-two bus and streetcar routes, including raising fares by 10-cents, leading to longer wait-times and more densely crowded buses; dismantle two or three of the cities HIV/AIDS programs and three drug prevention centres; close three shelters, and contract-out an additional five more (affecting roughly 220 full-time equivalent positions); and raise property taxes by 2.5 per cent. All this, and more, is in the face of a $140-million year-end budget surplus for 2011; and if past underestimates are any indication, could top $200-million by years end!
As Locals 79/416 enter bargaining, reports suggest the City is seeking concessions in the realm of a 10 per cent cut in pay and benefits, the removal of job security provisions, reductions in hours of paid-work, modified duties and sick-time coverage, layoffs, privatization, contracting-out and the use of scab workers in the event of a lockout. As argued before, these contract negotiations will not only be the test of the Ford agenda and whether conservatives can consolidate their hold over Council, but reveal whether the Toronto and Canadian labour movement as a whole is up to the task of fighting back effectively.
This setting requires some exploratory thinking on a progressive labour strategy, in particular for CUPE Local 79 (and related to 416), given the harsh fact that the economic crisis has so far strengthened reactionary forces and efforts to reconstruct neoliberal policy frameworks. Such rethinking has broader implications for unions and community activists as a whole. The political failure of Local 79 and 416 to galvanize support throughout the 2009 civic workers strike, which was a failing of the broader labour and progressive community (and particularly revealing the political slide into neoliberal urbanism of the NDP councillors and the prior David Miller administration), needs to be kept in mind. The public backlash that followed led to the election of Rob Ford, and therefore discussions of a progressive strategy are ardently needed.
Two recent videos, the first ?Toronto Emergency Warning,? and the second ?CUPE National: Move Your War Room to Toronto Now,? warn of Canadian unions confronting a ?PATCO moment? ? a reference to the Airline Pilots' union strike in the U.S. crushed by Ronald Reagan, setting in train the massive retreat of U.S. unions. The videos argue that Mayor Rob Ford has openly declared class war on Torontonians, and warning Canadian labour that CUPE Local 79/416's fight is their fight is not enough; hence the need for CUPE to take a more active and interventionist role by moving their headquarters to Toronto.
While there will of course be meetings, promises of support and demonstrations, the question is what CUPE as a union is prepared to do. Will it in response consider disrupting the city in a way that puts pressure on Ford directly and also indirectly via the city elite? Will it be able to garner some modest public support in light of 2009's backlash? With a general strike (at least at present) still off the agenda, these recent videos try to reveal where potential openings lie for workers and community activists. This may include, as the videos make note, a slowdown in one section one day, another a few days later, the removal of services for half a day somewhere else, sit-ins, a teach-in with clients a different day, and eventually, rolling days of action across the city. It must be recalled that we are speaking about a movement that has been stumbling along for so long and is still on the defensive even after a profound economic crisis that should have put it on the offensive. How can it possibly and suddenly act so decisively? The point is we need to take the risks while we still have some capacity to do so, or risk continuing along the several decade long union impasse and decline in general living standards.
While there is certainly good reason to be critical of CUPE National's ability to coordinate the working-class as a whole, let alone in conjunction with Locals 79 and 416, the 2002 and 2009 strikes made it painfully clear that the Locals cannot go into this fight alone. Even with the support of community groups, social justice activists and other unions, the mobilizational capacities, resources and organization, including public support just wasn't there. Furthermore, with CUPE National confined to the sidelines, the strike was almost entirely run by Local 79/416's Executive Committees, while also resulting in an overwhelming majority of rank and file members being left out of the loop. A call for solidarity without substance is mere posturing. Transforming our unions internally and its relationship to others affected by the concerted push for austerity, means coming to terms with what we're up against and the inadequacies of past bargaining strategies. In this vein, we're all trying to figure out what is possible and necessary.
With the recent (and unexpected) experiences of Wisconsin, the Arab Spring and the Occupy protests inspiring a wave of radical activism, it is crucial that CUPE Locals 79 (and 416) develop some broader strategies for fighting back. Of course, the related question here is how to ?frame the message? and strategize around it; in other words, the so-called ?public relations? war. First and foremost, the issues of bargaining and keeping the service public should be put at the forefront of the unions' demands. Why can't the bargaining message in this round simply be the following: ?We have no collective bargaining demands. Our only concern is to keep the service in public hands and not hand it over to the 1 per cent. We just want to keep doing our work in a fair and equitable manner.? Could this translate into a positive public reaction while laying the foundation for encouraging connections between public services and public workers? Might this reveal the multi-layered linkages with the users of those services and communities?
Let's take the issue of garbage collection as one example. Past experiences have shown this to be a lightning-rod for public and media attention. While representative of a minority of workers on strike in previous years, it is without question the most visible and conflict-ridden source of frustration (not to mention the major source of leverage and point of attack for the union). Suppose the city follows through with a lockout and brings in private garbage collectors to scab (as we know the company has already been chosen under the table, perhaps illegally through a bidding process). In addition to exposing what happened in other similar cases ? underbidding and then falling services and escalating costs ? the union movement would be at war and need to stop the garbage trucks. This would require, for example, the capacity and organization of community pickets, car cavalcades blocking the trucks and so forth.
The message would be that ?we'd like to pick up the garbage and like you we're trying to hang on to our jobs; tell Ford to back down from his attempt to lower working-class standards and favour his 1 per cent friends and we'll be back doing what we should be doing.? No doubt people will be angry but perhaps this gives us a shot at channelling the anger against Ford in a way that we failed to do in 2009. In this context, maybe it is also possible to re-direct the right-wing media's emphasis on ?jobs for life? away from resentment into other questions. For example, what is wrong with working people wanting to hang on to decent-paying jobs providing services we all need? And that Ford really wants to end job security so he can cut services: why else make such a fuss since population and garbage are growing, especially when the evidence shows that garbage privatization is no cheaper or more efficient but to the contrary?
Unfortunately, Local 79's executive committee is still struggling to move beyond the limits of past strikes and to re-think the way union organization needs to adjust to the new climate. The turn in the Miller regime toward neoliberalism already demonstrated that the old clientalistic relations between union leaders and progressive city councillors is gone. They could do nothing to prevent the decline of the city, the consolidation of neoliberal urbanism and the needless decision by the City Executive to force a strike. Like the 2009 organizational failure of 79/416, with contracts set to expire in about one week the union has failed to thoroughly inform members of concessionary demands leaving many rank and file workers in the dark. How can union members get politically motivated if they don't know what's happening? To date, the single most important organizational initiative that Local 79 has undertaken in the two years since the last strike has been redesigning its website (though even the members only portal offers less information than one can get in the Toronto Star). Besides Local 79's ?Taking Care of Toronto's? bus, radio and television adds, the union has remained virtually silent in the media, for example, failing to come out against Councillor and chair of the Community Development and Recreation Committee Giorgio Mammoliti's plans for studying the contracting-out of childcare and recreation services.
Once again, most members are unaware of the Local's proposals going into collective bargaining, few, if any, educational materials are available to members or the public, and beyond stewards, no picket captains have been trained. Further, and most importantly, members are not being mobilized to make the connections between the services they provide and the communities they serve.
With President Ann Dembinski set to retire at the end of the month, will incoming President Tim Maguire step up to the task and create a bolder public image? Will the union rely less on winning over the so-called ?mushy middle? set of councillors ? we've seen the failings of this approach clearly in 2009 and, more recently, with the contracting out of a portion of garbage and snow removal? Rather than relying on a business unionist approach to collective bargaining, executive members should be focusing on maximizing input from its membership and making the connections to the communities affected by privatization and cutbacks.
On this note, we need to be clear of the limitations of Local 79/416's past job-action strategies which relied in good part on filling dump sites and then preventing trucks from leaving waste facilities. Besides the public's obvious frustration, a majority of workers do not work in waste disposal which meant, for example, that part-time/seasonal recreational staff, building inspectors and administrators with little to no experience with waste management, were tasked with shutting down these facilities and devoting their energies in arguably futile ways.[2] Perhaps there's a way of using these highly skilled workers' knowledge and abilities in ways that demonstrate their important contributions to city services? There were certainly other picket lines throughout the city, such as at social services centres and councillors' offices, but maybe there are new forms of strike action that could reorient the publics' perception away from the stigma of a ?garbage strike? and toward a ?public services strike? or a ?strike against privatization.? Locals 79 and 416 are both very diverse unions with public health nurses and educators, health inspectors, child and elder care workers, by-law enforcement officers, building inspectors, court and social services administrators, water treatment, Emergency Medical Services, housing, road maintenance, animal services and so on. But maybe this is not as well known as it should be. Is there a way of targeting and demonstrating the other services that these workers supply? In other words, is there a way of utilizing striking workers so that a broader connection could be made between services and communities, privatization and public goods?
Let's consider child care and recreation (something I've been involved with as a part-time employee with the city of Toronto over the last decade). Ford has been very clear in suggesting that Toronto's 24,000 child care spaces should be privatized. He recently moved to eliminate 2000 subsidized spaces that were previously cost-shared with the province. As such, affordable child care remains one of the most sorely needed services in the city (and the country) with nearly 20,000 children still wait-listed. With over 650 city-subsidized child care centres in the city, perhaps workers and users of those services could come up with new and creative ways of continuing to provide some interaction with children in need of care, youth, adults and the elderly in the event of a lockout or strike. This may include after-school recreation at supportive schools, family events at city parks and public spaces, reading circles at union headquarters, coffee shop talks, flying squads that engage with the public on transit or at malls, outdoor art exhibits and so on.
Why not reclaim or occupy community centres as central spaces of the community via city provider-community user alliances?
Still further, since community centres are located at the heart of various neibourhoods, they serve as important spaces for the exchange of information and discussion. Why not reclaim or occupy community centres as central spaces of the community via city provider-community user alliances? This could bring together issues related to child care, recreation, libraries, arts and culture, and connect those to waste disposal, road maintenance and public health for instance. It is unlikely in the event of a strike or lockout that CUPE Locals 79 and 416 could be successful by focussing (once again) almost exclusively on waste collection. The political potential of an ?occupy? community centres in coordination with community groups and activists, particularly in light of hundreds of millions in service cuts and over $23-million in new user-fees is just one potential option in a host of other choices.[3]
This might begin with communities demanding more decision making power with the programs and events held at their centres, leafleting campaigns outside recreation and daycare centres, ice rinks, ski hills and so forth, pressuring local councillors and mangers, sit-ins, park protests, educationals and the creation of community caucuses. Since the latter in particular are locally rooted the potential exists for city-wide alliances and the development of an integrated set of demands. In short, any job action should be about most effectively demonstrating the many skills and competencies of city workers in ways that connect them with the communities they are rooted in, and the value in keeping them public. Past experiences show that this is not only possible but most successful.[4]
Finally, in addition to uniting with other unions' campaigns for public services, there may be ways of inclusively (unlike indirectly with past strikes) coordinating action with community organizations that reinforces existing campaigns, or takes on initiatives the unions are not in a position to do. Without exaggerating current capacities, this may help through our networks to connect with, along with whatever outreach CUPE and the labour council does, activists in other unions and in the community. And rather than only having union-sponsored forums, it might be useful for the unions to reach out to concerned allies like the Toronto Environmental Alliance, Stop the Cuts, Greater Toronto Workers' Assembly and other groups. Community allies can be more radical in their messages and pamphleteering ? as long of course as it supports and doesn't undermine existing campaigns ? than can many confined by official trade union structures. This could be a particularly important and effective space if cultivated collectively. Recent positive developments include CUPE Ontario's Keep Toronto Public community meeting (although unfortunately only open to CUPE members), the Stop the Cuts Final Budget Showdown, the recently founded Public Transit Coalition, and Social Planning Toronto's Together Toronto campaigns.
Rally organized by Stop The Cuts.
Building our movements in ways that mutually reinforce critical struggles in and around our unions works on at least three intersecting levels: (1) Building the capacities of the entire union to fight back against concessionary demands, and demanding more from our leadership; (2) Developing a movement inside the union that pushes for enhanced democratic participation and control, a radically feminist, antiracist, class-struggle oriented political praxis, and engaging with struggles that affect our communities. (3) Building up a cadre of workers and activists that embody intellectual understanding and are active.[5]
The City of Toronto has been in a steady state of decline in the quality of its public planning and services and social infrastructures for several decades now. In many respects, Toronto now has the shoddiest public spaces and infrastructure of any major North American city, even while growth pressures strain existing capacities. The foremost strategy of the Ford Administration and neoliberal urbanism is to try to make do with even less public spaces, and to leave as much room as possible for market forces to accommodate the continual pressures of urban growth.
The central obstacle in the way of this strategy further advancing is city workers and their collective union organization and the communities of users who depend upon the services they provide. Toronto civic workers face a historic test, which may well set a precedent nationally, given the pivotal place of city workers in public sector unions. Given the push for austerity across all levels of government, public workers and services are under attack from all angles. In appeasing the interests of capital by all too familiarly demanding that working-class standards of living further decline, the battle lines have been drawn and the forces of attack readied. Time will tell if a major resistance is in the cards. ?
Carlo Fanelli is a PhD candidate at Carleton University and member of CUPE 4600, 3908 and 79. He maintains a blog at carlofanelli.org.
Endnotes:
1. For an analysis of Ontario's push for austerity see Carlo Fanelli and Mark Thomas, ?Austerity, Competitiveness and Neoliberal Redux: Ontario Responds to the Great Recession.?
2. More than a month into the strike the ineffectiveness of trying to fill waste management facilities became all the more clearer. While some facilities were certainly filled to capacity after six weeks, and communities up in arms about hazardous waste seeping into parks and putting their communities at risk, other facilities near industrial areas had the space to keep piling waste for at least another month. Also, given the utter chaos and disorganization that marred most picket lines, rather than engage with those being affected by the strike, workers themselves had little information as to why we were on strike. See Julia Barnett and Carlo Fanelli, ?Lessons Learned: Assessing the 2009 City of Toronto Strike,? Bullet No 298.
3. These suggestions arose through informal talks with friends and family members. For instance, should job action be taken, with parts of snow plowing recently contracted-out (and more on the horizon) what if the unions' strike headquarters decided to put together a snow-plowing unit that plowed the driveways and sidewalks of the elderly and disabled, or in communities more generally. This would give those whose services have been affected by the strike and those whose jobs have been affected an opportunity to discuss what's at stake and begin making those connections with others. Since Animal Services is an important part of the city, what if workers held 'animal appreciation days' and brought their animals out to the picket lines for morale and to publicize the other services we supply, or offered health and fitness assessments provided by professionals. What if recreation workers like hockey or ski instructors held mini-camps in parks or community centre parking lots. These are just a few small-scale ways more efficient use of workers might be had, rather than having them stand limitedly on a side-walk.
4. For example, striking museum workers in Ottawa and Gatineau put together regular cultural events that normally would have taken place inside the museum, but held them outside instead. These events were open to the public and provided the workers with an opportunity to organize and work together on the picket line in a fulfilling way. The successful execution of the events, such as the one honouring veterans on Remembrance Day and the ?picket line tea party? held in celebration of Prince Charles? visit to Canada contributed in a substantial way to workers? ability to maintain their spirits throughout the strike. The events also demonstrated the skill and creativity of workers to the public, as well as presented them as a valuable and productive force. This was especially clear when the Museum of Civilization opened the ?Afghanistan: Hidden Treasures? exhibit and the workers created their own featuring themselves and entitled ?Striking Treasures.? As striking workers gained confidence through concerted action, and the support of the community mounted, there was a clear turn toward class-struggle unionism as the connections between the employed and unemployed, communities and workplaces, became all the more clearer. See Priscillia Lefebvre, ?Post-Strike Musings: Assessing the Outcome of the Museum Workers' Struggle.? (For an updated and expanded version see the latest issue of Alternate Routes). See also Hilary Wainwright, ?Resistance Takes Root in Barcelona.?
5. See also Greg Albo and Herman Rosenfeld, ?What Should We Do To Help Build a New Left?,? Relay No. 28, October 2009.
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As the Canadian government and its provincial equivalents take part in the global push for austerity, its after effects have significantly strained the fiscal and political dimensions of municipal governance. More than a year after right-wing populism swept through the City of Toronto, the agenda of the Rob Ford Administration has shown itself to be as administratively vacuous as economically delusional. Notwithstanding reality, however, public sector workers still continue to suffer from widespread resentment and political antipathy. This is why Ford and council, with the support of Toronto and Canada's ruling classes, continues to be so forceful with respect to layoffs, service cuts, asset sell-offs and so on. Despite Rob Ford's calamitous slide in popularity, significant reforms are threatening to fundamentally overhaul the delivery and quality of public services in the city.
In preparation for a major showdown with public sector workers in Toronto ? one of the few remaining bastions of union strength and workplace precedent-setters in Canada ? the City appears hell-bent on a 2012 lockout as CUPE Locals' 79 and 416's contracts expire at the end of 2011. Rob Ford has unmistakably revealed where the ?fat? now lies: ?The gravy is in the number of employees we have at City Hall.? Having been unable to find any evidence of irresponsible spending, inefficient service delivery and unproductive workers, city employees and the users of its services are now enemy number one at City Hall. Since taking office Toronto's public service has already been reduced by more than 2,300 workers, mostly from leaving vacancies unfilled, including the recent announcement of 1,200 layoffs, with plans to further reduce the city's workforce by another 5000 positions over the duration of Rob Ford's term.
Ford has revealed in the year since his election that he's ideologically fixated on ?Selling the City,? and so despite the rhetoric of ?efficiencies? the cuts keep piling up. As budget consultations have heated up in the months preceding Council's January 2012 final vote, it has been revealed that the City is sparing no effort to reduce services and delivery standards, layoff employees and undermine the social infrastructure of the city.
Recent plans for cuts include: plans to close three city-run daycares and seven community pools; sub-contract the private sector to build the Eglinton-Scarborough LRT (in part pushed by the Ontario Liberals' ?alternative financing and procurement? P3 agency[1]); contract-out snow ploughing, salting, street sweeping and road work (affecting 70 permanent positions and 170 seasonal positions); cut 12 after-school care and 58 student nutritional programs; eliminate no-charge recreational programs for underserviced children, youth and seniors at 22 priority centres; close 12 community centres and eliminate nearly 60 per cent of the city's full-time youth outreach workers from 29 to 12 (affecting roughly 180 positions); slash sixty-two bus and streetcar routes, including raising fares by 10-cents, leading to longer wait-times and more densely crowded buses; dismantle two or three of the cities HIV/AIDS programs and three drug prevention centres; close three shelters, and contract-out an additional five more (affecting roughly 220 full-time equivalent positions); and raise property taxes by 2.5 per cent. All this, and more, is in the face of a $140-million year-end budget surplus for 2011; and if past underestimates are any indication, could top $200-million by years end!
As Locals 79/416 enter bargaining, reports suggest the City is seeking concessions in the realm of a 10 per cent cut in pay and benefits, the removal of job security provisions, reductions in hours of paid-work, modified duties and sick-time coverage, layoffs, privatization, contracting-out and the use of scab workers in the event of a lockout. As argued before, these contract negotiations will not only be the test of the Ford agenda and whether conservatives can consolidate their hold over Council, but reveal whether the Toronto and Canadian labour movement as a whole is up to the task of fighting back effectively.
This setting requires some exploratory thinking on a progressive labour strategy, in particular for CUPE Local 79 (and related to 416), given the harsh fact that the economic crisis has so far strengthened reactionary forces and efforts to reconstruct neoliberal policy frameworks. Such rethinking has broader implications for unions and community activists as a whole. The political failure of Local 79 and 416 to galvanize support throughout the 2009 civic workers strike, which was a failing of the broader labour and progressive community (and particularly revealing the political slide into neoliberal urbanism of the NDP councillors and the prior David Miller administration), needs to be kept in mind. The public backlash that followed led to the election of Rob Ford, and therefore discussions of a progressive strategy are ardently needed.
Two recent videos, the first ?Toronto Emergency Warning,? and the second ?CUPE National: Move Your War Room to Toronto Now,? warn of Canadian unions confronting a ?PATCO moment? ? a reference to the Airline Pilots' union strike in the U.S. crushed by Ronald Reagan, setting in train the massive retreat of U.S. unions. The videos argue that Mayor Rob Ford has openly declared class war on Torontonians, and warning Canadian labour that CUPE Local 79/416's fight is their fight is not enough; hence the need for CUPE to take a more active and interventionist role by moving their headquarters to Toronto.
While there will of course be meetings, promises of support and demonstrations, the question is what CUPE as a union is prepared to do. Will it in response consider disrupting the city in a way that puts pressure on Ford directly and also indirectly via the city elite? Will it be able to garner some modest public support in light of 2009's backlash? With a general strike (at least at present) still off the agenda, these recent videos try to reveal where potential openings lie for workers and community activists. This may include, as the videos make note, a slowdown in one section one day, another a few days later, the removal of services for half a day somewhere else, sit-ins, a teach-in with clients a different day, and eventually, rolling days of action across the city. It must be recalled that we are speaking about a movement that has been stumbling along for so long and is still on the defensive even after a profound economic crisis that should have put it on the offensive. How can it possibly and suddenly act so decisively? The point is we need to take the risks while we still have some capacity to do so, or risk continuing along the several decade long union impasse and decline in general living standards.
While there is certainly good reason to be critical of CUPE National's ability to coordinate the working-class as a whole, let alone in conjunction with Locals 79 and 416, the 2002 and 2009 strikes made it painfully clear that the Locals cannot go into this fight alone. Even with the support of community groups, social justice activists and other unions, the mobilizational capacities, resources and organization, including public support just wasn't there. Furthermore, with CUPE National confined to the sidelines, the strike was almost entirely run by Local 79/416's Executive Committees, while also resulting in an overwhelming majority of rank and file members being left out of the loop. A call for solidarity without substance is mere posturing. Transforming our unions internally and its relationship to others affected by the concerted push for austerity, means coming to terms with what we're up against and the inadequacies of past bargaining strategies. In this vein, we're all trying to figure out what is possible and necessary.
With the recent (and unexpected) experiences of Wisconsin, the Arab Spring and the Occupy protests inspiring a wave of radical activism, it is crucial that CUPE Locals 79 (and 416) develop some broader strategies for fighting back. Of course, the related question here is how to ?frame the message? and strategize around it; in other words, the so-called ?public relations? war. First and foremost, the issues of bargaining and keeping the service public should be put at the forefront of the unions' demands. Why can't the bargaining message in this round simply be the following: ?We have no collective bargaining demands. Our only concern is to keep the service in public hands and not hand it over to the 1 per cent. We just want to keep doing our work in a fair and equitable manner.? Could this translate into a positive public reaction while laying the foundation for encouraging connections between public services and public workers? Might this reveal the multi-layered linkages with the users of those services and communities?
Let's take the issue of garbage collection as one example. Past experiences have shown this to be a lightning-rod for public and media attention. While representative of a minority of workers on strike in previous years, it is without question the most visible and conflict-ridden source of frustration (not to mention the major source of leverage and point of attack for the union). Suppose the city follows through with a lockout and brings in private garbage collectors to scab (as we know the company has already been chosen under the table, perhaps illegally through a bidding process). In addition to exposing what happened in other similar cases ? underbidding and then falling services and escalating costs ? the union movement would be at war and need to stop the garbage trucks. This would require, for example, the capacity and organization of community pickets, car cavalcades blocking the trucks and so forth.
The message would be that ?we'd like to pick up the garbage and like you we're trying to hang on to our jobs; tell Ford to back down from his attempt to lower working-class standards and favour his 1 per cent friends and we'll be back doing what we should be doing.? No doubt people will be angry but perhaps this gives us a shot at channelling the anger against Ford in a way that we failed to do in 2009. In this context, maybe it is also possible to re-direct the right-wing media's emphasis on ?jobs for life? away from resentment into other questions. For example, what is wrong with working people wanting to hang on to decent-paying jobs providing services we all need? And that Ford really wants to end job security so he can cut services: why else make such a fuss since population and garbage are growing, especially when the evidence shows that garbage privatization is no cheaper or more efficient but to the contrary?
Unfortunately, Local 79's executive committee is still struggling to move beyond the limits of past strikes and to re-think the way union organization needs to adjust to the new climate. The turn in the Miller regime toward neoliberalism already demonstrated that the old clientalistic relations between union leaders and progressive city councillors is gone. They could do nothing to prevent the decline of the city, the consolidation of neoliberal urbanism and the needless decision by the City Executive to force a strike. Like the 2009 organizational failure of 79/416, with contracts set to expire in about one week the union has failed to thoroughly inform members of concessionary demands leaving many rank and file workers in the dark. How can union members get politically motivated if they don't know what's happening? To date, the single most important organizational initiative that Local 79 has undertaken in the two years since the last strike has been redesigning its website (though even the members only portal offers less information than one can get in the Toronto Star). Besides Local 79's ?Taking Care of Toronto's? bus, radio and television adds, the union has remained virtually silent in the media, for example, failing to come out against Councillor and chair of the Community Development and Recreation Committee Giorgio Mammoliti's plans for studying the contracting-out of childcare and recreation services.
Once again, most members are unaware of the Local's proposals going into collective bargaining, few, if any, educational materials are available to members or the public, and beyond stewards, no picket captains have been trained. Further, and most importantly, members are not being mobilized to make the connections between the services they provide and the communities they serve.
With President Ann Dembinski set to retire at the end of the month, will incoming President Tim Maguire step up to the task and create a bolder public image? Will the union rely less on winning over the so-called ?mushy middle? set of councillors ? we've seen the failings of this approach clearly in 2009 and, more recently, with the contracting out of a portion of garbage and snow removal? Rather than relying on a business unionist approach to collective bargaining, executive members should be focusing on maximizing input from its membership and making the connections to the communities affected by privatization and cutbacks.
On this note, we need to be clear of the limitations of Local 79/416's past job-action strategies which relied in good part on filling dump sites and then preventing trucks from leaving waste facilities. Besides the public's obvious frustration, a majority of workers do not work in waste disposal which meant, for example, that part-time/seasonal recreational staff, building inspectors and administrators with little to no experience with waste management, were tasked with shutting down these facilities and devoting their energies in arguably futile ways.[2] Perhaps there's a way of using these highly skilled workers' knowledge and abilities in ways that demonstrate their important contributions to city services? There were certainly other picket lines throughout the city, such as at social services centres and councillors' offices, but maybe there are new forms of strike action that could reorient the publics' perception away from the stigma of a ?garbage strike? and toward a ?public services strike? or a ?strike against privatization.? Locals 79 and 416 are both very diverse unions with public health nurses and educators, health inspectors, child and elder care workers, by-law enforcement officers, building inspectors, court and social services administrators, water treatment, Emergency Medical Services, housing, road maintenance, animal services and so on. But maybe this is not as well known as it should be. Is there a way of targeting and demonstrating the other services that these workers supply? In other words, is there a way of utilizing striking workers so that a broader connection could be made between services and communities, privatization and public goods?
Let's consider child care and recreation (something I've been involved with as a part-time employee with the city of Toronto over the last decade). Ford has been very clear in suggesting that Toronto's 24,000 child care spaces should be privatized. He recently moved to eliminate 2000 subsidized spaces that were previously cost-shared with the province. As such, affordable child care remains one of the most sorely needed services in the city (and the country) with nearly 20,000 children still wait-listed. With over 650 city-subsidized child care centres in the city, perhaps workers and users of those services could come up with new and creative ways of continuing to provide some interaction with children in need of care, youth, adults and the elderly in the event of a lockout or strike. This may include after-school recreation at supportive schools, family events at city parks and public spaces, reading circles at union headquarters, coffee shop talks, flying squads that engage with the public on transit or at malls, outdoor art exhibits and so on.
Why not reclaim or occupy community centres as central spaces of the community via city provider-community user alliances?
Still further, since community centres are located at the heart of various neibourhoods, they serve as important spaces for the exchange of information and discussion. Why not reclaim or occupy community centres as central spaces of the community via city provider-community user alliances? This could bring together issues related to child care, recreation, libraries, arts and culture, and connect those to waste disposal, road maintenance and public health for instance. It is unlikely in the event of a strike or lockout that CUPE Locals 79 and 416 could be successful by focussing (once again) almost exclusively on waste collection. The political potential of an ?occupy? community centres in coordination with community groups and activists, particularly in light of hundreds of millions in service cuts and over $23-million in new user-fees is just one potential option in a host of other choices.[3]
This might begin with communities demanding more decision making power with the programs and events held at their centres, leafleting campaigns outside recreation and daycare centres, ice rinks, ski hills and so forth, pressuring local councillors and mangers, sit-ins, park protests, educationals and the creation of community caucuses. Since the latter in particular are locally rooted the potential exists for city-wide alliances and the development of an integrated set of demands. In short, any job action should be about most effectively demonstrating the many skills and competencies of city workers in ways that connect them with the communities they are rooted in, and the value in keeping them public. Past experiences show that this is not only possible but most successful.[4]
Finally, in addition to uniting with other unions' campaigns for public services, there may be ways of inclusively (unlike indirectly with past strikes) coordinating action with community organizations that reinforces existing campaigns, or takes on initiatives the unions are not in a position to do. Without exaggerating current capacities, this may help through our networks to connect with, along with whatever outreach CUPE and the labour council does, activists in other unions and in the community. And rather than only having union-sponsored forums, it might be useful for the unions to reach out to concerned allies like the Toronto Environmental Alliance, Stop the Cuts, Greater Toronto Workers' Assembly and other groups. Community allies can be more radical in their messages and pamphleteering ? as long of course as it supports and doesn't undermine existing campaigns ? than can many confined by official trade union structures. This could be a particularly important and effective space if cultivated collectively. Recent positive developments include CUPE Ontario's Keep Toronto Public community meeting (although unfortunately only open to CUPE members), the Stop the Cuts Final Budget Showdown, the recently founded Public Transit Coalition, and Social Planning Toronto's Together Toronto campaigns.
Rally organized by Stop The Cuts.
Building our movements in ways that mutually reinforce critical struggles in and around our unions works on at least three intersecting levels: (1) Building the capacities of the entire union to fight back against concessionary demands, and demanding more from our leadership; (2) Developing a movement inside the union that pushes for enhanced democratic participation and control, a radically feminist, antiracist, class-struggle oriented political praxis, and engaging with struggles that affect our communities. (3) Building up a cadre of workers and activists that embody intellectual understanding and are active.[5]
The City of Toronto has been in a steady state of decline in the quality of its public planning and services and social infrastructures for several decades now. In many respects, Toronto now has the shoddiest public spaces and infrastructure of any major North American city, even while growth pressures strain existing capacities. The foremost strategy of the Ford Administration and neoliberal urbanism is to try to make do with even less public spaces, and to leave as much room as possible for market forces to accommodate the continual pressures of urban growth.
The central obstacle in the way of this strategy further advancing is city workers and their collective union organization and the communities of users who depend upon the services they provide. Toronto civic workers face a historic test, which may well set a precedent nationally, given the pivotal place of city workers in public sector unions. Given the push for austerity across all levels of government, public workers and services are under attack from all angles. In appeasing the interests of capital by all too familiarly demanding that working-class standards of living further decline, the battle lines have been drawn and the forces of attack readied. Time will tell if a major resistance is in the cards. ?
Carlo Fanelli is a PhD candidate at Carleton University and member of CUPE 4600, 3908 and 79. He maintains a blog at carlofanelli.org.
Endnotes:
1. For an analysis of Ontario's push for austerity see Carlo Fanelli and Mark Thomas, ?Austerity, Competitiveness and Neoliberal Redux: Ontario Responds to the Great Recession.?
2. More than a month into the strike the ineffectiveness of trying to fill waste management facilities became all the more clearer. While some facilities were certainly filled to capacity after six weeks, and communities up in arms about hazardous waste seeping into parks and putting their communities at risk, other facilities near industrial areas had the space to keep piling waste for at least another month. Also, given the utter chaos and disorganization that marred most picket lines, rather than engage with those being affected by the strike, workers themselves had little information as to why we were on strike. See Julia Barnett and Carlo Fanelli, ?Lessons Learned: Assessing the 2009 City of Toronto Strike,? Bullet No 298.
3. These suggestions arose through informal talks with friends and family members. For instance, should job action be taken, with parts of snow plowing recently contracted-out (and more on the horizon) what if the unions' strike headquarters decided to put together a snow-plowing unit that plowed the driveways and sidewalks of the elderly and disabled, or in communities more generally. This would give those whose services have been affected by the strike and those whose jobs have been affected an opportunity to discuss what's at stake and begin making those connections with others. Since Animal Services is an important part of the city, what if workers held 'animal appreciation days' and brought their animals out to the picket lines for morale and to publicize the other services we supply, or offered health and fitness assessments provided by professionals. What if recreation workers like hockey or ski instructors held mini-camps in parks or community centre parking lots. These are just a few small-scale ways more efficient use of workers might be had, rather than having them stand limitedly on a side-walk.
4. For example, striking museum workers in Ottawa and Gatineau put together regular cultural events that normally would have taken place inside the museum, but held them outside instead. These events were open to the public and provided the workers with an opportunity to organize and work together on the picket line in a fulfilling way. The successful execution of the events, such as the one honouring veterans on Remembrance Day and the ?picket line tea party? held in celebration of Prince Charles? visit to Canada contributed in a substantial way to workers? ability to maintain their spirits throughout the strike. The events also demonstrated the skill and creativity of workers to the public, as well as presented them as a valuable and productive force. This was especially clear when the Museum of Civilization opened the ?Afghanistan: Hidden Treasures? exhibit and the workers created their own featuring themselves and entitled ?Striking Treasures.? As striking workers gained confidence through concerted action, and the support of the community mounted, there was a clear turn toward class-struggle unionism as the connections between the employed and unemployed, communities and workplaces, became all the more clearer. See Priscillia Lefebvre, ?Post-Strike Musings: Assessing the Outcome of the Museum Workers' Struggle.? (For an updated and expanded version see the latest issue of Alternate Routes). See also Hilary Wainwright, ?Resistance Takes Root in Barcelona.?
5. See also Greg Albo and Herman Rosenfeld, ?What Should We Do To Help Build a New Left?,? Relay No. 28, October 2009.
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Source: http://www.socialistproject.ca/bullet/582.php
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4:00 PM: The Cleveland Browns became the last team this season to score a return TD, as Josh Cribbs returned a punt 84 yards for a score.
3:45 PM: Baseball America's Aaron Fitt reports that Ryan Garvey, son of Steve Garvey has transferred from USC to Riverside Community College.
3:30 PM: Miami Dolphins RB Reggie Bush has rushed for 1,000 yards in a season for the first time in his career, while Denver Broncos RB Willis McGahee has rushed for 1,000 yards in a season for his third different team.
3:15 PM: Video of Cincinnati Bengals receiver Jerome Simpson doing a full body somersault & landing on his feet in the end zone for a TD against the Arizona Cardinals.
3:00 PM: The Minnesota Vikings have lost both RB Adrian Peterson (knee injury) & QB Christian Ponder (concussion) during Saturday's game against the Washington Redskins.
2:45 PM: The Miami Dolphins' early 17-0 lead on New England is the Patriots' largest deficit so far this season.
2:30 PM: New York Giants receiver Victor Cruz set a new record for longest play from scrimmage in franchise history with a 99-yard TD catch against the Jets.
2:15 PM: Some New York Giants players weren't happy with the Jets covering up the Giants' Super Bowl logos at MetLife Stadium with black curtains.
2:00 PM: The Oakland A's could reportedly be given permission to move to San Jose by February.
1:45 PM: The Metro UK shares pics from a nude calendar featuring female soccer fans from Poland hoping to raise money for their cash-strapped club (possibly NSFW).
1:30 PM: Paralyzed Rutgers football player Eric LeGrand tweets that he'll be flying out to Denver for the Broncos' regular season home finale against the Kansas City Chiefs on New Year's Day.
1:15 PM: Carolina Panthers QB Cam Newton has broken Peyton Manning's NFL rookie passing record.
1:00 PM: A South Carolina man died last month after eating cocaine hidden in his brother's butt while the two were sitting in the back of a police car.
12:45 PM: Former Illinois basketball player Jereme Richmond has been placed under house arrest as he awaits trial on aggravated battery & gun charges.
12:30 PM: A Benicia (CA) High School basketball player was arrested on stautory rape charges for having sex with a girl under 18 years old.
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Textaholics, this one's for you. Swype — the Android-flavored keyboard that lets you type (or swype, rather) faster than you ever thought possible — has a present for you this holiday season. With Siri on the iPhone 4S, voice control apps are sprouting up faster than you can ask Siri about the meaning of life. Voice is where we're headed and there's nothing anyone can do to stop it, so if you can't beat 'em, join 'em right? That said, Swype is launching a new beta with Nuance's Dragon dictation built right in.Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/e40xHKaKS0g/
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A Taliban suicide bomber killed seven Frontier Corps soldiers today in an attack on a base in northwestern Pakistan. The attack, the second against the Frontier Corps in two days, was carried out to avenge a senior Taliban commander killed in a drone strike two months ago.
The Taliban suicide bomber rammed his explosive-laded car into a building at a Frontier Corps base in the settled district of Bannu and detonated the bomb, killing at least seven soldiers and wounding dozens more. Officials said the death toll may rise as several of the paramilitary soldiers may be trapped under the rubble.
A Taliban spokesman said the attack was designed to punish the Pakistani military for allowing the US to conduct an airstrike that killed a senior commander.
"We claim responsibility for the attack, which was launched to avenge the killing of one of our commanders Taj Gul in a US drone strike in South Waziristan tribal region last month," Ihsanullah Ihsan, a spokesman for the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan told AFP. "Our attacks will continue against the security forces."
The attack is the second against the Frontier Corps in 24 hours. Yesterday, a platoon-sized Taliban assault team killed one Frontier Corps soldier and captured 15 more after overrunning a fort in the nearby district of Tank. That attack was led by Asmatullah Shaheen, or Asmatullah Bhittani, the Taliban's commander for Tank who is on the list of 20 most-wanted Taliban leaders.
The Taliban also claimed that the assault was executed to avenge the death of Taj Gul Mehsud, who has been described as the group's operations commander in South Waziristan and a senior deputy to Hakeemullah Mehsud, the leader of the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan, which is based in Pakistan's tribal areas and the northwest.
Taj Gul was reported to have been killed along with 12 other fighters in a US airstrike on Oct. 26. His death was not confirmed until Asmattullah announced yesterday's attack against the Fronteir Corps. Taj Gul has been described as a senior deputy to Hakeemullah Mehsud, the leader of the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan, which is based in Pakistan's tribal areas and the northwest.
Hakeemullah's forces are at war with the Pakistani state and also send troops to Afghanistan to fight NATO forces. He has vowed to carry out attacks in the US, and was behind the failed car bomb plot at Times Square in New York City on May 1, 2010.
Two of Hakeemullah's top deputies have recently signaled that their group is willing to make peace with the Pakistani state. While there is no official ceasefire between the Pakistani military and the Taliban, attacks against security forces and suicide attacks have been rare. The last reported suicide attack in Pakistan took place in late August. he Pakistani government has signaled it wishes to stop fighting the Taliban, and has suspended operations against the terror group, except for in the tribal agency of Arakzai.
A pause in drone strikes in Pakistan
The US has put the drone program, which hunts senior al Qaeda and Taliban leaders as well as dangerous operatives, on hold since the Nov. 26 clash with Pakistani forces in Mohmand that resulted in the deaths of 24 Pakistani troops. The last strike took place 36 days ago, on Nov. 16.
The current pause in strikes is the longest since the program was expanded in the summer of 2008. A US intelligence official told The Long War Journal that the program is "on hold" so as not to contribute to the deteriorating relations between the US and Pakistan. Officials said the pause would be broken only if a high-value target were identified, but would not say how senior the al Qaeda leader must be for another strike to occur.
Sources:
Suicide attack kills six troops in Pakistan: police, AFP
Suicide attack strikes Pakistani soldiers, Al Jazeera
Source: http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2011/12/taliban_suicide_bomb_33.php
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$El actor y humorista mexicano Roberto G?mez Bola?os (82), m?s conocido como "Chespirito", super? los dos millones de seguidores en su cuenta de Twitter.
A las 13:25 hora chilena, 2.026.939 seguidores en su cuenta, @ChespiritoRGB, y hab?a tuiteado 2.140 veces. En su cuenta, sin embargo, Chespirito s?lo sigue a 48 personas, entre las que est?n @lachilindrina_ (personaje de Mar?a Antonieta de las Nieves), @jirafalesruben, del actor que le dio vida a ese profesor, Rub?n Aguirre; y el Presidente mexicano Felipe Calder?n.
El artista que dio vida a "El Chavo del ocho" y al "Chapul?n colorado"; pone en su biograf?a: "perfil estilo romano con nariz aguile?a; o sea: ?MUY GUAPO!, y est? encantado con la red social, donde ha dicho: "Entra?ables hermanos, me han hecho MUY feliz, de veras que no contaba con su astucia... ?los amo!".
El pr?ximo a?o Chespirito ser? homenajeado en 11 pa?ses por sus 40 a?os de comediante.
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