AWI Responds to de Graaf’s Op-Ed on Globalization and the Profession

Architectural Workers International

The Architect’s Newspaper

July 22, 2026

Architecture Workers International (AWI), the coalition of labor advocacy groups that includes TAL, has published a response to Reinier de Graaf’s recent op-ed for The Architect’s Newspaper on globalization, oppressive regimes, and the profession’s supposed dilemma. Where de Graaf frames the choice as one between complicity and quitting, AWI argues this is a false binary that erases the distinct position of rank-and-file workers from that of firm executives. The piece calls instead for internationally coordinated labor organizing, bottom-up rather than top-down, as the real path to architecture having agency in the world.

Read in full on The Architect’s Newspaper

Architectural Workers International (AWI) is a coalition of architecture labor advocacy groups including The Architecture Lobby (TAL), Section of Architectural Workers (SAW), Architectural Workers United (AWU), Future Architects Front (FAF), and Netherlands Angry Architects (NAA!). They can be contacted at: archworkintl@protonmail.com.

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