What Is True Democracy and How Do We Achieve It? Notes From the People’s Summit in Belém

Authoritarianism and repression against those fighting for liberation and climate justice are increasing. Nevertheless, the oppressed and exploited continue to resist and build truly democratic spaces. Gatherings such as the IV International Meeting and the People’s Summit in Belém, Brazil, are examples of these spaces. In her contribution to the “Deep Democracy” series, Caitlin Schroering, who participated in these gatherings, shares her observations from the struggle for social transformation.

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From Charlotte, North Carolina, USA to Belém, Para, Brazil our oppression is interconnected, and so too is our liberation: Affected People of the world, unite!

Shrishtee Bajpai writes, “The question that several communities have been asking, especially in these times of rising authoritarianism, is what is real democracy? Is it electoral liberal democracy, co-opted by finance capitalism, or is real democracy one in which people break free from the shackles of their subjugation and define ‘well-being’ for themselves? Is democracy only about people and/or also about the rest of nature?” And how can this transformation be done within the existing system?

“We are unity in diversity”

These questions of self-determination, sovereignty, envisioning, and creating futures beyond capitalism and imperialism were also at the core of the People’s Summit, held in Belém, Brazil in November 2025. The closing declaration from the Summit asserts that “We have taken on the task of building a just and democratic world, with buen vivir/bem viver/good living for all. We are unity in diversity.” From November 7-16 in Belém, Para, Brazil, I participated in two spaces adjacent to COP30: The IV International Meeting of People Affected by Dams, Socio-Environmental Crisis, and Climate Change (henceforth IV International Meeting) followed by the People’s Summit, where I was also a part of Brazil’s Movement of People Affected by Dams (MAB) delegation of approximately 1,200 people (see here and my previous article about MAB for BG).

On November 16, 2025, I was seated in a massive outdoor tent with thousands of people, listening to the closing of the People’s Summit. I simultaneously felt joy, possibility, hope, grief, anger, and fear as I thought about how US imperialism and militarization harm and murder people around the globe, including here. In this microcosm of a possible world, I felt deep grief knowing that, while I sat a continent away, people in my own city of Charlotte, North Carolina, were being pulled off the streets and out of cars to be jailed or deported. I thought about MAB’s poignant motto: “We are all affected.” The violence of imperialism and colonialism are always present, on every corner of the globe. Since November, this continues to be made more and more visible, as Donald Trump’s officials murder people, and at least 2,300 people have been illegally detained by ICE since July.

It is January, 2026, and I am revisiting words I first wrote in November, 2025, right after returning home from Brazil. It feels like a lifetime ago. For nearly two weeks, I was in a space of the what-could-be that is in the now. It wasn’t perfect, but it was solidarity, grassroots, small democracy, and collective people power working together to build a different world. Now, I’m back in the heart of US imperialism, where brutality and violence continue to grow and become more visible. It is hard to be hopeful here. But for a moment, I can return to that place of hope. Despite the long days, little sleep, and exhaustion, my body’s main memory is of solidarity, camaraderie, and humanity. The assertion from Angela Davis (2022) that “Sometimes we have to do the work even though we don’t yet see a glimmer on the horizon that it’s actually going to be possible” rings ever more true.

Acknowledge the intersectionalities of how we are affected

During a plenary at the IV International Meeting, Jaron Browne noted that: “COP30 comes at a time of massive transition, upheaval and instability in the global capitalist system and the economic order of the past 50 years. In this period of instability and contestation, we are seeing a rise of far-right, xenophobic, patriarchal forces mobilizing a politics of hate and fear around the world. This is a moment of rapid acceleration of the climate crisis, militarization, genocide, authoritarianism, and the corporate capture of public systems.”

Authoritarianism and repression against those fighting for liberation and climate justice are growing. Yet, as Browne and many others noted, we continue to resist and build democratic spaces. Gatherings like the IV International Meeting and the People’s Summit are such spaces. Here we build a new world of co-determination and democratic agency. Our liberation in the centers of empire is tied to being in solidarity with affected people everywhere on the planet. Solidarity and internationalism are needed to build the organized people power necessary to build a new path forward. We can – and I would argue must – acknowledge the intersectionalities of how we are affected (based on geographic location, gender, race, class), while also knowing that we are a part of the working classes whose labor is extracted and exploited by the ruling classes, whose greed and accumulation is destroying the planet (often under the guise of “carbon democracy”) and fueling catastrophic climate change.

At the People’s Summit, the analysis was clear: capitalism is the principal cause of climate change, which is why there are only false solutions at COP30. We need a just energy transition – because energy, like water, should be a universal right, not a tool for war and greed. Solutions that don’t come from those most affected and that don’t include an end to capitalism are just new forms of capital appropriation and violence, hidden behind pretty words and glossy optics.

‘We breathe for a new world’

In the Final Declaration of the People’s Summit, a collective of people read aloud a powerful synthesis of what is wrong, what could be, and how we get there. In sum, the declaration notes the interconnectedness of capitalism, racism, and patriarchy. It stands against false market-based solutions to climate change that will not work, and only serve to reproduce systems of inequality, oppression, and destruction. It explicitly notes the need to confront environmental racism and affirms the urgency to demilitarize. These same claims and values were affirmed throughout the IV International Meeting, the sessions of the People’s Summit, and on November 15^th, during the Global Climate March when tens of thousands of people, including a delegation of over 1,200 people from MAB took to the streets with 70,000 protesters to demand real solutions to climate change.

Such spaces are important because, despite the heat and exhaustion, thousands of people worked tirelessly for years, toiling 18–20 hours a day during meetings, to make everything happen. Moments like this represent glimmers of a new democratic world that is not only possible but also here all around us. As Arundhati Roy put it, “another world is not only possible, she is on her way”.

Power and hope in collective struggle

On November 12^th, the People’s Summit opened with a Boat Parade (Barqueata) with approximately 300 boats and affected peoples from all corners of the globe who sailed together through the waters of the Guajará Bay. During this voyage filled with messages of collective people power and the hope of a new world, we passed an enormous war ship. While Brazil’s war machine cannot be compared to the US in scale, the presence of it represents the same system and ideology killing the planet. The People’s Summit represented the real solutions to climate change not offered at COP30, and the possibility of creating a new world – one without imperialism, patriarchy, white supremacy, and LGBTQphobia.

During the closing ceremony (November 16^th) of the People’s Summit people applauded the creation of the International Movement of People Affected by Dam and the Climate Crisis and noted this historic moment brought together a global organization with movements from five continents, and over 60 countries to transcend borders and build global solidarity of peoples affected by dams, socio-environmental disasters, and the climate crisis. (See here for more about how MAB one of the founding organizations of this global movement builds this translocal resistance.)

All children matter!

The Summit highlighted the importance of listening to the voices of youth and children, who too often are completely silenced or ignored.What does it mean to say that all children matter? To me, it means that we must fight for and mourn the children who were brutally murdered by the bombs dropped by the state of Israel in Palestine – bombs that were funded with US taxpayer dollars. This also means that we cannot ignore the genocide happening in Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, in the favelas of Rio, and against Indigenous peoples and Black people around the world. Last but not least it means that we must stand up and fight against the forces of ICE and Border Control in the US tackling teenagers in supermarkets, ripping children from their parents, and murdering in cold blood. We must see the humanity in each other and truly respect and protect all life.

How many more people must die and how many more ecosystems must be devastated before we finally reject this global system built on and perpetuated by violence? How much longer will the promise of a free, democratic world be exploited to justify this violence? How much time is needed for a social transformation toward a truly democratic world? What is the chronopolitics of a transition to a genuine democracy? May those engaged in the struggle for true democracy have the strength and hope to continue the fight, and may those who have had the privilege of closing their eyes be moved to join them. We only have one planet and one life. Our liberation and destruction are intertwined; may we have the courage to recognize that.