i am fred redman, the secretary-treasurer of the afl-cio. we are a federation of national -- 60 national unions representing 12.5 million working people in every state and territory and in all parts of our economy. we are honored and we are committed to come together with bishop barber and dr. theoharis and the poor people's campaign. and our partners in the faith and civil rights and social justice movements to mobilize working people and use our collective voice to demand an end to systemic economic justice -- injustice and this scourge of poverty. the american labor movement, we fight for all working people and their families. we fight injustice in our communities and at work and we are committed to vanquishing oppression in all of its forms. and, look, there is no greater form of a pressure than when a country with immense resources and wealth allows its people to suffer and die from a lack of resources. poverty is a failure of the system. it exists because we allow it to exist. and dr. king knew that. he saw poverty for what it was, a m