Regency council installed
De Locomotief, 10 Oct 1950: report on the installation of the Semarang regency council by Resident Milono, listing about 40 members from many parties and bodies. Mrs Sri Utari is named as the Gerwis representative; Mrs Sukandar and Suwarti represent GPII's women's wing. Records Gerwis's presence in local government in
Sumatran groups up in arms against Masjumi
De Locomotief, 27 July 1953: a Palembang delegation (PIR, PNI, PKI) flies to Jakarta with a statement signed by six parties and 22 organisations including SOBSI, BTI, Pemuda Rakjat and Gerwis. It demands early elections, anti-corruption action, settlement of the Tanjung Morawa affair and a democratic cabinet without Ma
Statement of groupings in South Sumatra
De Nieuwsgier, 27 July 1953: Palembang delegation (PIR, PNI, PKI) flies to Jakarta with a joint statement by six parties and 22 organisations including SOBSI, BTI, Pemuda Rakjat and Gerwis. It says a PNI-Masjumi cabinet is no longer possible, urges a democratic parliamentary cabinet under Wongsonegoro, action against D
Salatiga: national action committee formed
De Locomotief, 29 July 1953: Salatiga branches of SOBSI, BTI, PPDI, Pemuda Rakjat and Gerwis jointly convene a meeting of 35 organisations and parties, which forms a national action committee and decides to send an open letter to Sukarno urging implementation of parliament's decisions and action against Darul Islam and
Other trade unions: Sarbupri strike and BTI congress solidarity
De Vrije Pers fragment (17 Sep 1953) on trade-union reactions to the Sarbupri plantation workers' strike. It notes that the BTI's second congress, attended by SOBSI, Pemuda Rakyat and Gerwis representatives, declared solidarity with the strike and instructed its branches to support strikers.
Merger of peasant unions
Java-Bode, 18 September 1953, p. 2: report that the Barisan Tani Indonesia (BTI) congress in Jakarta voted 122 in favour of merging with the Rukun Tani Indonesia, with some BTI executive members suspended. The damaged OCR ends by saying Gerwis expressed views on the merger; the content of those views is unreadable.
Merger of the peasant unions
Short item, Indische Courant voor Nederland, 23 Sep 1953, p. 3: the BTI congress votes 122 to 8 to merge with Rukun Tani Indonesia; dissenting board members are suspended. Gerwis is reported to have welcomed the BTI-RTI merger.
Gerwani conference in Salatiga on implementing congress decisions
De Locomotief, 29 July 1954: the Salatiga branch of Gerwani, with Central Java provincial delegates and BTI, SOBSI and women's organisation representatives, discusses implementing the latest congress decisions. Sub-branches will be set up in every subdistrict capital. Gerwani fields no candidates in the elections but i
Maisuri, symbol of resistance to forced marriage (Harian Rakjat, 26 January 1955)
Harian Rakjat, 26 Jan 1955, p. 3: women's-page feature 'Maisuri, symbol of resistance to forced marriage', signed Ny. Suwarti (DPP Gerwani). Maisuri refused a marriage imposed by her family to an older man (Kyai Ahmad) who already had wives; the piece uses the case to argue against forced marriage and for a marriage la
PKI has one million members: Aidit interview with Ogonyok
De Waarheid, 23 Mar 1956, p. 2: Moscow dispatch that the PKI has one million members, per Aidit in an interview with the Soviet magazine Ogonyok; SOBSI has 2.6 million, the peasant union BTI 2.5 million, Pemuda Rakjat 700,000 and Gerwani about 500,000. Useful as a contemporary membership figure for Gerwani.
Indian Daily Mail, 27 May 1956 (lead only). A delegation of Indonesian working women arrived in Moscow at the invitation of the Soviet trade-union council (VTsSPS), led by Setiati Surasto, secretary for economic affairs of an Indonesian agricultural (peasant) organisation. Solidarity with the socialist bloc.
Pewarta Soerabaia, 21 November 1957: Concordia building, Malang
Pewarta Soerabaia, 21 Nov 1957, p. 4: Malang municipality orders six organisations including BTI and Gerwani (Malang regency branch) to vacate the ruins of the former Societeit Concordia within seven days.
Suara Tani, January 1959 (10th anniversary issue): Gerwani greeting and cooperation with BTI
Suara Tani (BTI organ), special 10th-anniversary issue, January 1959, OCR noisy. Contains greetings from ministers, army chief Nasution and Gerwani; BTI New Year message; agrarian seminar results; BTI membership table (3.39 million); exposés of landlord exploitation in Java. On p. 5 Gerwani's national leadership (claim
Suara Tani, February 1960: Welcoming the WIDF Bureau session in Jakarta
Suara Tani (BTI organ), Feb 1960 (vol. XI no. 2), OCR noisy. Covers BTI protest over price rises, sugar-cane land rents, Khrushchev's coming visit and the Bandung peace conference. On p. 3 an article welcomes the WIDF Bureau session in Jakarta (late Jan 1960), stressing peasant women's backwardness, citing Sri Darnings
Suara Tani, June 1960: Biography of Kartinah Kurdi (DPR-GR) and her article on International Children's Day
Suara Tani (BTI organ), June 1960 (vol. XI no. 6), OCR noisy. Issue marks PKI's 40th anniversary, the DPR-GR, the sharecropping law and the 5-Principles rice method. P. 3 (cont. p. 6) gives short biographies of BTI peasant representatives in the DPR-GR, including Ny. Kartinah Kurdi (Taman Siswa teacher, Yogyakarta, act
Communists of Indonesia beloved by the people
Tribune (Sydney), 23 May 1962, p. 9: Laurie Aarons, Communist Party of Australia fraternal delegate, praises the Seventh Congress of the PKI as a mass party (383 delegates, 'two million' members) led by D.N. Aidit, with Sukarno speaking at the closing rally. Lists the mass organisations it leads: BTI, SOBSI and Gerwani
Communists of Indonesia beloved by the people
Tribune (Sydney), 23 May 1962, p. 9: Laurie Aarons, Communist Party of Australia fraternal delegate, praises the Seventh Congress of the PKI as a mass party (383 delegates, 'two million' members) led by D.N. Aidit, with Sukarno speaking at the closing rally. Lists the mass organisations it leads: BTI, SOBSI and Gerwani
Gone to the farmer: communists in the Indonesian countryside
Friese Koerier travel/feature piece (12 Mar 1964, p.11) on how Indonesian communists won rural support via relief after Darul Islam raids, farming advice, theatre, wayang and badminton. It states the communists founded nominally non-communist organisations: BTI, Gerwani ('the Indonesian women's movement') and Pemuda Ra
Reds, pressing reforms, win wide peasant support in Java (New York Times, 27 March 1965)
New York Times, 27 March 1965, p.55, Neil Sheehan from Klaten, Central Java: on how the PKI and affiliates win peasant support through land-reform agitation and practical projects. Mrs. Sukarni, chair of the Klaten district women's organisation (Gerwani) and district committee member, says Gerwani works to remove restr
Heves Megyei Népújság, 7 Dec 1965: Jakarta (arrests, Gerwani)
Heves Megyei Népújság, 7 Dec 1965, brief Jakarta item: 10,500 people, mostly plantation workers, held in North Sumatra (Brig. Gen. Sobiran), and 10,333 arrested around Pati in Central Java, all members of BTI, Pemuda Rakyat, Gerwani or other left organisations.
Spread of Islam in Majapahit and Blambangan (serial, part 50)
Bali Post, 24 Dec 1993, p. 5: a serial instalment rejecting the claim that the 1926 Bedewang peasant revolt was a PKI product with its mass organisations including Gerwani.
Berita Yudha, 25 October 1994: White Book on G30S (part 13)
Berita Yudha, 25 Oct 1994, p. 4: White Book instalment on BTI/PR 'mass actions' and the anti-American campaign; Gerwani named twice, including among a PR/CGMI/Gerwani crowd at the East Java governor's office.
Tempo, 1 October 2012: Bangsawan Karaeng Lira - 'Crushing one's own family'
Tempo testimony (1 Oct 2012) of Bangsawan Karaeng Lira, 72, who led the mob that destroyed the BTI leader's house in Bontolanrang, Takalar (South Sulawesi), in late 1965. Describes forced labour (irrigation, roads) by detained PKI/BTI members, with a BTI survivor, Kamaruddin Bella, who lost relatives. Gerwani not menti