On October 26, 2025, the streets of Kuala Lumpur are set to become the stage for a dramatic showdown between grassroots activism and global power, as the Sekretariat Bantah Trump coalition gathers at Ampang Park for a People’s Assembly. Their target: US President Donald Trump, whose attendance at the ASEAN summit has sparked a groundswell of protest across Malaysia and beyond. The coalition, an alliance of citizen-led initiatives, student groups, and civil society organizations, is determined to put what they call "US imperialism" on trial—accusing Trump and other leaders of militarism, economic domination, environmental destruction, and, most urgently, complicity in what they describe as the ongoing genocide in Palestine.
This event is not just a one-off protest. According to Aliran, it is the culmination of a month-long campaign that has seen thousands take to the streets of Kuala Lumpur, effigies of Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu burned in convoy processions, and a teach-in linking the histories of Palestine and Malaysia in their shared fight against colonialism. The coalition’s demands are sweeping, aimed both at the US and Malaysian governments, and reflect a vision for a radically different regional and global order.
Among their key demands to the US government: end support for the "Zionist settler-colonization of Palestine," cease military aggression in hotspots like Gaza, Lebanon, Iran, Yemen, and Venezuela, withdraw US military presence from Southeast Asia, and stop using institutions like the International Monetary Fund and World Bank as "tools of intervention." Economic demands include lifting unilateral sanctions on Global South countries and ending trade practices that enforce dependency. On the environmental front, the coalition calls for the US to pay its "climate debt" to the Global South and address emissions caused by war and corporate exploitation.
For Malaysia, the coalition’s requests are equally forceful: end normalization with the US, apply diplomatic pressure to halt aggression in Gaza and Yemen, nationalize key industries to reduce reliance on Western loans, sanction companies like Lockheed Martin and BlackRock, close the US Embassy until the US sanctions Israel, and interrogate the US Ambassador over alleged war crimes. They also urge the government to speed up a "Just Energy Transition," focusing on sustainable investments and limiting fossil fuel trade with "imperialist states."
These demands are not just the work of a handful of activists. The joint statement is endorsed by 52 groups spanning Malaysia, Southeast Asia, Palestine, Australia, and the US, including the Resist US-Led War Movement, International Peace Bureau, and Friends of Palestine Network. Their message is clear: the struggle of the Palestinian people is bound up with broader fights for climate, racial, gender, economic, and political justice. "It is high time that ASEAN nations take a firmer stance in avoiding all forms of normalization to weaken US hegemony in the region," the coalition asserts in its statement, as reported by Aliran.
Meanwhile, across the Pacific, a different but related drama has been unfolding in the San Francisco Bay Area. On October 24, 2025, President Trump abruptly called off a planned federal immigration enforcement "surge" after a call with tech leaders—including Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff—according to The Guardian. The announcement left local leaders and organizers scrambling to respond, as they had spent days preparing for what many feared would be a major crackdown targeting undocumented immigrants.
In the uneasy hours that followed, the Bay Area’s immigrant communities braced for the worst. Volunteers organized patrols in neighborhoods where day laborers gather, and local groups set up support systems to ensure children of undocumented workers could get to and from school safely. Hundreds of demonstrators took to the streets in San Francisco and Oakland, determined to show that their communities would not be cowed by threats of raids.
Oakland’s mayor, Barbara Lee, confirmed that border patrol operations were canceled for the greater Bay Area, including Oakland. Still, uncertainty lingered. "I spoke with Alameda county sheriff Yesenia Sanchez, who confirmed through her communications with ICE that border patrol operations are cancelled for the greater Bay Area – which includes Oakland – at this time," Lee said, according to The Guardian. Yet, many advocates and residents were unconvinced. "We’re not taking Trump at his word. He’s equivocated before. We’re sticking with our plans," said Lisa Knox, co-executive director of the California Collaborative for Immigrant Justice.
Community organizations like Homies Organizing the Mission to Empower Youth (Homey) had already been running street patrols for weeks, both to observe immigration enforcement activity and to strengthen neighborhood ties. "But the patrols are also to build community, to make sure that people know their rights, to also reassure a lot of the people who are scared, to involve small-business owners, to involve neighbors, to really strengthen the community," said José Luis Pavón, an organizer with Homey.
Other groups, like Bay Resistance and the Latino Task Force, worked to inform day laborers about their legal rights and provide transportation for students whose parents might fear deportation. "We always say ‘power, not panic’. We’re focused on getting the message out to the community that they are not alone, people have rights if they encounter ICE or federal agents, and there are rapid response networks that can provide support if they are arrested. Yes, this is frightening, but communities can organize to defend themselves," Knox told The Guardian.
In Fruitvale, a predominantly Latino neighborhood in east Oakland, the mood was tense but determined. Residents created group chats to check in on one another, and teachers held lunches to help students strategize about supporting families affected by immigration enforcement. "Unfortunately … a lot of what is happening won’t feel new to our students," said Nick, a local teacher. "It’s not the first time that their families have felt threatened by the presence of ICE or other immigration officials. It’s not the first time they’ve heard of members of our school community being threatened with deportation or being deported."
By evening, as the sun set over the Bay, hundreds marched from Fruitvale toward the Coast Guard base in Alameda to protest the threatened immigration raids. Gabriela DelaRiva, a retired nurse and longtime activist, reflected on the cycles of progress and regression she’s witnessed. "To see progress, and then to see these things going backwards, it’s very distressing, very painful," she said. "But I’m so proud to be in the Bay Area where people do get activated."
Whether in Kuala Lumpur or Oakland, the common thread is clear: communities are mobilizing in the face of what they see as unjust policies and overreach by powerful actors. From Malaysia’s calls for decolonization and justice for Palestine to the Bay Area’s defense of immigrant rights, these movements are forging solidarity across borders and standing up against what they perceive as the harmful impacts of US foreign and domestic policy. As the world watches, their message is unmistakable—solidarity, resistance, and the unyielding pursuit of justice, wherever it may lead.