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Institute for Policy Studies: Netfa Freeman
Institute for Policy Studies

Biography

Netfa directs the Institute's school for organizers. This project provides affordable courses covering all aspects of grassroots activism.

Netfa holds a BA in History from the University of the District of Columbia (UDC) and has been a political organizer/activist since 1985.  He served as coordinator of the Committee for Political Education at the Pan-African Resource Center (1985-1989) and has worked as a phone-bank fundraiser for the Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador (CISPES 1988-1990).  Netfa has been intimately involved with many movements such as the 1986 International Peace Gathering in response to the U.S. bombing of Libya and the Advocates Plus Save UDC movement (1997). Currently he is working with the People Before Profit Community Healthcare Project that is organizing DC residents to take their healthcare needs into their own hands, is a boardmember for both Empower DC and M.O.M.I.E.S. TLC, is US Liaison for the Ujamma Youth Farming Project in Gweru Zimbabwe, and is an organizer in the No War On Cuba Movement.  Netfa is also a radio co-producer/co-host for Voices With Vision on WPFW 89.3 FM that airs Thursdays from 11am-12pm.

Articles authored:

Freedom or Farce? Examining the Varela Project

Ode To Black Women

May 25: Celebration of An Aspiration

Zimbabwe and Pan-African Liberation
An interview with Netfa by Gregory Elich

Zimbabwe: Psychosis of Denial

What Happy Thanksgiving

From Negro History Week to Pan-African Historical Context

Zimbabwe Election Deja Vu

Zimbabwe: More Than Complicity of Silence
 

Click to download Netfa Freeman’s photo in press quality

Netfa Freeman

Program Director
Social Action & Leadership School for Activists


netfa@hotsalsa.org


Recent Work

Op-Ed
Zimbabwe: More than Complicity of Silence
May 1 - When Colin Powell gave his infamous presentation to the United Nations, "proving" Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction Iraq dominated the headlines. It took some time and subsequent discoveries before many realized most of what we were fed was untrue. Although not as elevated, today Zimbabwe has taken a high profile place in corporate media headlines. Are we getting the truth this time and can we rely on the same progressives who broke through misinformation around Iraq to do the same for us again? By Netfa Freeman, published in The Black Commentator.

Op-Ed
From Negro History Week to Pan-African Historical Context
February 7 - Black History Month must do more than emphasize the inspiring achievements of great individuals. It must also help in refining a historical philosophy and method of study that helps us understand the prevailing conditions of our time. Historical study should explain such phenomena as how young Africans from the Congo to Haiti, from urban neighborhoods in the USA to other parts of the world are armed and wreaking havoc on their own communities. It should be able to explain how a people from a continent that has spawned some of the greatest contributions to world civilization are, today, persistently plagued by apathy, disease, poverty and political disempowerment in communities around the world. Neglecting the history that connects Black experiences and struggles beyond the confines of a particular country renders Black History Month deficient and leaves room for the notion of African inferiority. By Netfa Freeman, published in The Black Commentator.