Beijing May Festivals Highlight Communist 'Peace' Campaign in Asia (1952)
State Department intelligence report (27 May 1952) on Beijing's May 1952 festivals and the Asia-Pacific peace conference preparations as part of the communist 'peace' campaign. Mentions the WIDF only as a precedent for earlier Beijing meetings (Nov-Dec 1949); no reference to Indonesia, Gerwis or Gerwani found.
Analysis of Communist Propaganda in Indonesia (OIR 5714.7, 1952)
OSS/State Department report OIR 5714.7 (30 May 1952) analysing PKI propaganda: party structure, front organisations, relations with international communism and themes. Names Gerwis under Mrs Mudigdo as the communist vehicle competing with Kowani for women, and BTI under S. Sardjono; appendices cover publishing, films,
FBIS, 6 May 1958: Gerwani message to the UN Secretary General protesting American intervention
FBIS Daily Report (6 May 1958), HathiTrust scan p.430: Xinhua report that Indonesian mass organisations endorsed Premier Djuanda's denunciation of US intervention (PRRI crisis). Gerwani sent a message to the UN Secretary-General strongly protesting American intervention and urging the UN to warn the US and expel the Ch
FBIS, 4 June 1963: Indonesian women condemn Java riots (Gerwani letter)
FBIS-monitored Xinhua item (4 Jun 1963): the National Women's Federation of China received a letter from the Central Council of the Indonesian Women's Movement (Gerwani) condemning the May 1963 anti-Chinese 'racist counterrevolutionary' riots, blaming ex-Masjumi, PSI and other elements with foreign subversive agents ai
Foreign Office/CRO Papers on the PKI and Malaysia Confrontation (DO 169/516, 1964)
British Commonwealth Relations Office/Foreign Office file (DO 169/516, 1964) on Indonesia and Malaysia. It combines handwritten minutes, an IRD intelligence paper on the PKI (Aidit's December 1963 plenum, Sino-Soviet line, the prospect of PKI power within five years), a brief 'Communists smoothing path to power in Indo
Peking Review no. 41, 9 October 1964: National Day guests including Suharti of Gerwani
Peking Review no. 41 (9 Oct 1964), Chinese state weekly, on the 15th anniversary of the People's Republic. A list of foreign guests received by Chinese leaders (p. 7) names Mme Suharti, PKI Central Committee member and First Vice-Chairman of Gerwani, with Mme Chairul Saleh (Women's Union of the Indonesian Republic), Mm
FO 371/180324: Attempted Coup against Sukarno [15] (Nov 1965)
UK Foreign Office file FO 371/180324 (1965), 'Attempted coup against Sukarno [15]': telegrams and letters from Djakarta, Washington and Peking, November 1965, plus appended US and Canadian reports. It records Sukarno's Heroes Day speech, Adam Malik's view of the Sukarno-generals stalemate and accounts of 30 September.
FO 371/180333: Bilateral Relations with China (1965)
UK Foreign Office file FO 371/180333 (Jan-Dec 1965): Peking, Djakarta and Hanoi telegrams on Sino-Indonesian relations: Subandrio's visit, delegations, PKI-China links, then the post-coup anti-Chinese wave, attacks on Chinese premises and Medan riots. Only Gerwani mention: Angkatan Bersendjata (29 Oct, p. 82) says the
Jakarta women danced as generals were murdered (The Hindustan Times, 15 October 1965)
The Hindustan Times, 15 Oct 1965: report of a police witness's account at Lubang Buaya that Communist women danced naked in a circle while six generals and a lieutenant (mistaken for Nasution) were tortured to death, with torn-out fingernails and faces mutilated. Gerwani is not named, but this is an early instance of t
Red Party outlawed: Indonesia bans Communist party, Pemuda Rakjat and Gerwani (Kitchener-Waterloo Record, 18 October 196
Kitchener-Waterloo Record, 18 Oct 1965, p.1 (AP): Radio Jakarta announced a military ban on the Indonesian Communist Party and affiliates, issued in the name of Maj-Gen Umar Wirahadikusumah for the Jakarta area; SOBSI was banned, and Pemuda Rakjat and Gerwani, 'the party's women's wing', were also placed under the ban.
Ban on Communists reported (Saskatoon Star-Phoenix, 18 October 1965)
Saskatoon Star-Phoenix, 18 Oct 1965, p.1 (AP, Jakarta/Singapore): Radio Jakarta announced a military ban on the PKI and affiliates in the name of Maj-Gen Umar Wirahadikusumah; SOBSI banned, and Pemuda Rakjat and Gerwani, 'the party's women's wing', also placed under the ban. Also reports attacks on PKI offices in Banda
Communist Party Banned in Indonesia (Canberra Times, 19 October 1965)
Canberra Times, 19 Oct 1965, p. 1 (AAP-Reuter): Radio Jakarta reports the PKI and affiliates banned, including Pemuda Rakjat, Gerwani (called the women's wing), Sobsi, BTI and the student movement; the ban is by the Jakarta military commander, not Sukarno. Notes Army-led anti-Communist drive and Chinese protests. Early
Communist Party Banned in Indonesia (Canberra Times, 19 October 1965), duplicate
Canberra Times, 19 Oct 1965, p. 1 (AAP-Reuter): Radio Jakarta reports the PKI and affiliates banned, including Pemuda Rakjat, Gerwani (called the women's wing), Sobsi, BTI and the student movement; the ban is by the Jakarta military commander, not Sukarno. Notes Army-led anti-Communist drive and Chinese protests. Early
Communists banned in Jakarta area (The Daily Telegraph, 19 October 1965)
The Daily Telegraph (London), 19 Oct 1965, p.25, Rawle Knox from Singapore: Radio Jakarta announced a ban on the Indonesian Communist party in the Jakarta area (order attributed to 'Maj.-Gen. Kasomo' i.e. Umar Wirahadikusumah), its leaders told to report to police by Sunday; affiliates banned include Pemuda Rakjat, 'th
CIA, Press information relating to insurgency and counterinsurgency: South and East Asia (Summary 6897), 4 November 1965
CIA Foreign Documents Division weekly digest (Summary No. 6897, 4 Nov 1965) of press on insurgency in South and East Asia. Its Indonesia section reproduces Army-controlled press (Angkatan Bersendjata, Duta Masjarakat) on the 30 September Movement, including claims that Gerwani volunteers trained at Lubang Buaja and moc
The Economist, 6 Nov 1965, p.594, 'Rings on a tree trunk', from a special correspondent in Jakarta: the army-inspired anti-communist campaign has gained its own momentum, with raids on PKI offices, arrests, 26 Antara correspondents detained, Aidit in hiding, Sukarno declaring Central Java in a 'state of war'. Wall graf
CIA Bi-Weekly Propaganda Guidance, 8 November 1965 (WFTU Congress, AAPSO, Setiati Surasto)
CIA Bi-Weekly Propaganda Guidance of 8 Nov 1965 on Communist fronts (commentary 13-26 Oct 1965, WFTU Warsaw Congress, AAPSO Havana conference, Chinese foreign policy). Setiati Surasto appears only in a list of newly elected WFTU officials (Indonesia); the document notes the WIDF 20th anniversary and Indonesian delegate
Peking Review no. 46, 12 November 1965: anti-communist and anti-China activities of Indonesian right-wing forces
Peking Review Vol. VIII No. 46, 12 November 1965, a Chinese weekly. Contents: October Revolution anniversary, the Wang Chieh campaign, the Renmin Ribao/Hongqi refutation of the CPSU 'united action', and Indonesia reports on the anti-China current, a Chinese protest to Jakarta and 'rabid anti-communist' activities of ri
Army plans to kill P.K.I. for ever (The Scotsman, 8 December 1965)
The Scotsman, 8 Dec 1965, Dennis Bloodworth, 'Army plans to kill PKI for ever': Suharto and Nasution press to destroy the PKI while Sukarno refuses to ban it; the article analyses the PKI's miscalculations. It repeats the slander that six generals were mutilated by 'doe-eyed girls' of the PKI's 'Gerwani' women's moveme
US Embassy English text of an Angkatan Bersendjata article (April 1966) presenting the 30 September Movement as a coup 'engineered in Peking', with invented meetings between Aidit and Mao. Example of Army anti-China propaganda (later shown to derive from a Hong Kong satire).
Enclosure to A-666: The History of the Gestapu Abortive Coup, Engineered in Peking (Hong Kong, 1966)
US Consulate General Hong Kong telegram, 26 April 1966: the Angkatan Bersendjata article linking Mao to the 30 September coup reproduces almost word for word a fictitious satire from the Hong Kong fortnightly Look (16 Dec 1965). Documents fabricated Army propaganda.
Peking Review no. 18, 29 April 1966: 'white terror' in Indonesia, women and children killed
Peking Review Vol. 9 No. 18, 29 April 1966, a Chinese weekly. Besides Cultural Revolution and Afro-Asian Journalists' Association material, it carries Chinese protests against Indonesian anti-China outrages and a Renmin Ribao commentary, 'Right-Wing Reactionaries Plunge Indonesia into a Bloodbath' (p. 25), quoting New