IWSAP statement on Trump’s visit to Manila for the 2026 ASEAN Summit.
The Initiatives for Workers Solidarity in Asia Pacific (IWSAP) stands with Filipino workers and migrants in condemning US President Donald Trump’s visit to Manila for the 2026 ASEAN Summit on November 16-18. Trump brings an agenda of exploitation, repression and war that harms workers and migrants across Asia Pacific and beyond. Around the world, people are building resistance and solidarity against US economic domination and militarization.
Under Trump, migrant workers in the US are exploited for cheap labor and then subjected to violent ICE raids, detention and deportation, including Asian and Pacific Islander migrants and undocumented workers. Across Asia Pacific, the US has suspended visas and is sending deportees back to their home countries.
The US-Israeli war of aggression on Iran has sent oil prices and fuel costs soaring across Asia Pacific, pushing millions toward poverty. Transport workers have taken to the streets in protest over fuel costs. Migrant workers in the Gulf are at risk, affecting the remittances their families back home depend on. US bases, military access and war exercises keep expanding across the region, putting Asia Pacific on the front line of US war preparations.
Trump’s visit is expected to advance the Pax Silica initiative, a 14-country “economic security” bloc built to secure the AI and semiconductor supply chain for the US. Its first hub in the Philippines, a 4,000-acre zone at New Clark City in Tarlac, is promoted as a source of jobs and development but with no guarantees on job quality or local benefit.
Farmers and Aeta communities in Tarlac have condemned the project for draining water and resources, forcibly displacing Indigenous Peoples and undermining farmers’ livelihoods to serve US war production. Filipino workers have been protesting for months.
Workers need decent jobs, real protections and genuine development. IWSAP calls on workers and migrant groups across Asia Pacific to unite and speak out against Trump’s visit. Reject Pax Silica and expose the toll of war and anti-migrant raids on workers and migrants. Demand that their rights and livelihoods come before US strategic interests.
Trump Out! Reject Pax Silica! Stop US wars of aggression and intervention!