Peoples’ Summit: From the Amazon to the world, movements gather by the thousands in internationalist solidarity

Following a procession of over 200 boats along the Guamá River in Belém, Brazil, the Peoples’ Summit has officially kicked off. By the thousands, members of feminist, peasant, Indigenous and environmental movements, from across Brazil, Latin America and the world are gathering to demand an end to environmental racism and inequality. 

“Global injustices and environmental devastation brought on by a system that has only ever put profit over people is what we’re here to resist. We’re here as part of a united struggle across territories, identities and cultures, advancing toward a common political horizon that centres those on the frontlines of environmental racism and the climate crisis. In the face of the increasing threat of fascism and the far right, it is critical to build convergence and people power from the ground up.”

Lise Masson
Friends of the Earth International

From the Amazon to Palestine and Sudan, communities are fighting the brutality of an economic system driven by extraction and exploitation. The fossil fuel, mining and agribusiness corporations fuel this system and then propose false solutions to the crises they caused.

“‘Net zero,’ carbon markets, offsets, geoengineering – these are not climate solutions, they are escape routes for the very corporations burning the planet. These schemes are rooted in carbon colonialism – they steal land, criminalise Indigenous Peoples, and keep the fossil fuel era alive under a new green mask.”

Uli Siagian
WALHI / Friends of the Earth Indonesia

A system built on the exploitation of peoples and the ruin of the environment cannot bring forward the transformative change we need to secure justice and ensure a livable future. From energy to food sovereignty, real change and real solutions are built from the ground up.

“We reject false ‘green transitions’ that reproduce the same extractivist, colonial and patriarchal system. A just and feminist energy transition involves transforming power relations: building democratic, public and community-based energy systems, where life, care and the public sphere are at the centre. The peoples who inhabit and defend these territories have the right and sovereignty to decide on them. We are not sacrifice zones: we are peoples who sustain life in the face of a model that destroys it.”

Mercedes Gould
Tierra Nativa / Friends of the Earth Argentina

The Peoples’ Summit over the coming days will also help set a united course toward bringing the power back to the peoples and away from corporations.

“Transnational corporations have been setting the rules for too long, and it has led us into endless cycles of plunder, exploitation and domination of our bodies, lands and futures. All for the profit of a few who continue to violate rights with impunity. It’s time to turn the tables. The people must set the rules now. This is the fight to put life before profit — a fight for justice, dignity and our shared survival.”

Gideon Akoto
Friends of the Earth Ghana

“From the struggle to defend our rights against corporations to the defence of our territories, our struggles are connected. But only if we stand in solidarity with one another, as we are doing now at the Peoples’ Summit, can we build real solutions. We are focusing on life here in Belém, where the rivers converge. We call for internationalist solidarity, the liberation of all peoples, and an end to all forms of oppression. From the Amazon to Palestine, across the entire world, justice will prevail.”

Letícia Parangos
Friends of the Earth Brazil

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Media contacts

Ghislaine Fandel // ghislaine@foei.org // @FoEint // In Belém 8-23 November