CIA report, 6 May 1954: Financial preparations for the Gerwis congress, March 1954
CIA report, 6 May 1954: Trimurti and Dr Thung Sin Nio collecting funds to finance the Gerwis (now Gerwani) congress in Jakarta, 25-31 March 1954, including from Chinese-Indonesian donors. Evidence on congress financing and cross-community support.
Birth and Growth of the Indonesian Women's Movement, Part III (Sulami, 1959)
Part III of Sulami's 1959 history: KOWANI conflicts and 1948 Solo congress, founding of Gerwis at Semarang (4 June 1950), its 1954 renaming as Gerwani, structure with six commissions, membership growth (6,000 Java 1951; 642,460 in January 1957; 700,000 at the Third Congress, Solo, Dec 1957), 1955 election results (5 MP
Biographic Data on Members of the Gotong Royong Parliament (US Embassy despatch, July 1960)
US State Department Central Files despatch from Embassy Djakarta (July 1960, chargé Rolland Buchner): biographic data, with alphabetical index, on about 110 former members of parliament appointed to the Gotong Royong parliament, grouped by party. Biographies of women MPs include Gerwani figures. Mrs Mudigdio (Gerwis/Ge
The Communist Party of Indonesia 1951-1961: A Decade of the Aidit Leadership (Hindley, 1961)
Donald Hindley's 1961 ANU PhD thesis on the Indonesian Communist Party under the Aidit leadership, 1951-1961, covering PKI strategy, party-building, finances, mass organisations and elections. Section 'Women' (pp. 422-448, esp. 'Gerwani', pp. 428-441) traces Gerwis from its founding on 4 June 1950 (about 500 members) t
W. Irian: biggest issue for Indonesian people today
Tribune (Sydney), 10 Jan 1962, p. 3: Gloria Garton, UAW national president, reports on her 3.5 weeks in Indonesia as WIDF and UAW representative at the 4th Gerwani Congress in Jakarta (14-17 Dec 1961) and a Java tour, with meetings of up to 2,000 in Semarang and Yogyakarta. Says West Irian is the biggest unifying issue
W. Irian: biggest issue for Indonesian people today
Tribune (Sydney), 10 Jan 1962, p. 3: Gloria Garton, UAW national president, reports on her 3.5 weeks in Indonesia as WIDF and UAW representative at the 4th Gerwani Congress in Jakarta (14-17 Dec 1961) and a Java tour, with meetings of up to 2,000 in Semarang and Yogyakarta. Says West Irian is the biggest unifying issue
Soviet Woman, 31 May 1964: 'A New Realm', end of Soviet delegation's Indonesia visit report
Soviet Woman, 31 May 1964, p. (fragment): closing section of a Soviet Women's Committee delegation account of Indonesia (Mother's Day, Dec 1963), followed by an unrelated agricultural chemistry article. Delegates met Hurustiati Subandrio, Madame Supeni and 'Madame Umi Sarjono, Member of Parliament and President of Gerw
JPRS Translations on South and East Asia No. 101: Indonesian press, October 1965 (dismiss Gerwani from the women's movem
JPRS Translations on South and East Asia No. 101: selected Oct 1965 Indonesian press items. Gerwani-related: Duta Masjarakat (16 Oct) 'Dismiss Gerwani from Women's Movement' saying members trained at Lobang Buaja and urging Kowani (chair Hurustiati Subandrio) to act; 11 Oct 'Gerwani and Pemuda Rakjat in Disguise' (clai
U.S. Act As Tension Rises In Indies (Geraldton Guardian, 12 October 1965)
Geraldton Guardian, 12 Oct 1965, p. 1: wire report on rising tension as the Army purges Communists. Mentions a Radio Indonesia broadcast, via Radio Malaysia, that a crowd burned down the Aceh office of the Communist women's organisation Gerwani; Soviet leaders warn Sukarno against attacks on Communists; the US evacuate
U.S. Act As Tension Rises In Indies (Geraldton Guardian, 12 October 1965), duplicate
Geraldton Guardian, 12 Oct 1965, p. 1: wire report on rising tension as the Army purges Communists. Mentions a Radio Indonesia broadcast, via Radio Malaysia, that a crowd burned down the Aceh office of the Communist women's organisation Gerwani; Soviet leaders warn Sukarno against attacks on Communists; the US evacuate
Evening Post (Wellington), 12 Oct 1965, NZPA-Reuter report: Communists flee into Central Java hills from an Army dragnet; branch officials detained; US embassy dependants withdrawn. Mobs ransacked Communist youth, women's and trade-union offices in Jakarta; per Radio Malaysia quoting Radio Jakarta, a crowd burned the G
Armed Java Reds Flee to Hills to Escape Dragnet (Evening Post, 12 October 1965), clipping on arrests and Aceh office
Clipping from the Evening Post of 12 Oct 1965: US embassy dependants withdrawn; hundreds of Communist branch officials detained, Bandung committee arrested in Yogyakarta; Jakarta curfew eased. Communist youth, women's and trade-union offices ransacked in Jakarta, and a crowd burned the Gerwani office in Aceh, north Sum
PKI Affiliates Including Gerwani Suspended (FBIS, 18-21 Oct 1965)
FBIS Daily Report pages (19 and 21 Oct 1965; HathiTrust scans) with the Jakarta war administrator's reporting order: from 19 to 24 October board members of PKI, Pemuda Rakjat, Gerwani, BTI, CGMI, Perhimi, IPPI, Lekra and HSI must report to police or military posts or face action. Also the bans on PKI and affiliates, Ge
Dossier of a slaughter
Tribune (Sydney), 29 Jun 1966, p. 5: editorial attacking Western press whitewashing of the Suharto regime plus a long reconstruction of 30 Sep-1 Oct 1965 taken from the British New Left Review, portraying the movement as junior officers' action. It mentions that Halim auxiliaries from Pemuda Rakyat and Gerwani took par
Dossier of a slaughter
Tribune (Sydney), 29 Jun 1966, p. 5: editorial attacking Western press whitewashing of the Suharto regime plus a long reconstruction of 30 Sep-1 Oct 1965 taken from the British New Left Review, portraying the movement as junior officers' action. It mentions that Halim auxiliaries from Pemuda Rakyat and Gerwani took par
Archive of the Event of 1965 in Indonesia (compilation incl. Anderson and McVey, Preliminary Analysis of the October 1,
Internet Archive compilation on the 1965 events whose main text is Anderson and McVey's Cornell 'Preliminary Analysis of the October 1, 1965 Coup' (1971), with source documents. It says Gerwani and Pemuda Rakjat trainees at Lubang Buaya were drawn into the killings (pp. 22-23) while stressing the army-fed 'orgy' storie
Archive of the Event of 1965 in Indonesia (compilation incl. Anderson and McVey, Preliminary Analysis of the October 1,
Internet Archive compilation on the 1965 events whose main text is Anderson and McVey's Cornell 'Preliminary Analysis of the October 1, 1965 Coup' (1971), with source documents. It says Gerwani and Pemuda Rakjat trainees at Lubang Buaya were drawn into the killings (pp. 22-23) while stressing the army-fed 'orgy' storie
Indonesian Girl's Ordeal: Victim of 'Classic Conspiracy Case' (Canberra Times, 2 January 1971)
Canberra Times, 2 Jan 1971, p. 8 (Hugh Mabbett): reports the Sum Kuning case in Yogyakarta, where a 17-year-old egg seller was raped, then tortured by police and charged with a false report. Police tried to tar her with an accusation that in 1965, aged about 12, she was a Gerwani member; the court exposed the fabricati
Indonesian Girl's Ordeal: Victim of 'Classic Conspiracy Case' (Canberra Times, 2 January 1971), duplicate
Canberra Times, 2 Jan 1971, p. 8 (Hugh Mabbett): reports the Sum Kuning case in Yogyakarta, where a 17-year-old egg seller was raped, then tortured by police and charged with a false report. Police tried to tar her with an accusation that in 1965, aged about 12, she was a Gerwani member; the court exposed the fabricati
Interview with Maria Ulfah Santoso: PKI and Gerwani tried to control Kowani (Tempo, c. 1977; JPRS)
JPRS translation of a Tempo profile (c. early 1977) of Maria Ulfah Santoso (b. Serang 1911): her marriage to political prisoner Soebadio Sastrosatomo with Subandrio's help (Jan 1964), early women's-movement work, Perwari and Kowani, and the PSI. She says that during her 11 years leading Kowani from 1952, 'PKI and Gerwa
Wieringa's 2000 article on communism and women's same-sex practices, prompted by Kowani chair Ine Sukarno's 1999 claim that Gerwani supported lesbianism; argues Gerwani's morality was puritan and heterosexual and that 'militant motherhood' threatened conservatives. Links Gerwani slander to sexuality politics.
South China Sunday Morning Post, 23 Apr 2000, p.10, Vaudine England: profile of Sudjinah Halina (72), former Gerwani activist and political prisoner, as Indonesia reopens debate on 1965. She recounts Solo childhood, guerrilla courier work (1947-49), study at Gadjah Mada, the 1955 Prague youth festival, a job with the W
Komnas Perempuan's 2007 report on gender-based crimes against humanity in 1965: 122 testimonies, an account of Gerwani's history and the 1965 press campaign behind the Lubang Buaya slander, and catalogue of rape, sexual slavery, detention and Buru. Key official source on women's experience.
Truth Will Out: Indonesian Accounts of the 1965 Mass Violence (Wardaya, ed., 2013)
Wardaya's 2013 English edition of oral histories gathered 2008-11 by Sanata Dharma University's PUSdEP: witnesses from military, Muhammadiyah, Kejawen and Catholic backgrounds and survivors including women detained as alleged Gerwani; foreword summarises the Gerwani mutilation narrative and autopsy. Oral history source
Free English-language magazine issue edited by Soe Tjen Marching (Bhinneka Nusantara, Surabaya), October 2015, of victim testimonies. Ex-women prisoners Hartiti, Maria Goretti Sumilah and Theresia Kadmiyanti describe Gerwani-related interrogation: nude-dance and genital-mutilation accusations, searches for a 'Gerwani m
Free English-language magazine issue edited by Soe Tjen Marching (Bhinneka Nusantara, Surabaya), October 2015, of victim testimonies. Ex-women prisoners Hartiti, Maria Goretti Sumilah and Theresia Kadmiyanti describe Gerwani-related interrogation: nude-dance and genital-mutilation accusations, searches for a 'Gerwani m
Years of Dressing Dangerously: Modern Women, National Identity and Moral Crisis in Sukarno's Indonesia (Sullivan, 2020)
Charles P. Sullivan's PhD dissertation (History, University of Michigan, 2020) reads Indonesian women's magazines (Wanita, Puspa Wanita, Varia) from 1945-66 to argue that the Lubang Buaya narrative about Gerwani worked as a 'post-text' of long-running anxieties over modernity, moral crisis and the 'Mother of the Nation
Tempo English, 4 October 2021: End of the Road (Umi Sardjono)
English-edition Tempo cover story 'End of the Road' (4 Oct 2021, Retno Sulistyowati), a translation from the Umi Sardjono special report. It traces Umi's formation in Pathuk Youth, Pesindo, BBW with S.K. Trimurti, Madiun 1948 arrest, founding of Gerwis (Semarang, 3-6 Jun 1950), Gerwani growth from 80,000 to 650,000 (19
Tempo English, 4 October 2021: Umi Sardjono and allegations against Gerwani (editors' note)
English edition of the Tempo editors' note 'Umi Sardjono and Allegations Against Gerwani' (4 Oct 2021, Moyang Kasih Dewi Merdeka) introducing the special report. It describes Umi's silence, trauma and fear of surveillance (Wieringa 1981, Pohlman 2005), her arrest at Senayan and detention at Bukit Duri, the absence of m
Detention Camps in Asia (Brill, 2022): 'Torture Camps in Indonesia, 1965-1970' (Pohlman), opening with Sudjinah's memoir
Brill edited volume (2022) on detention camps in modern Asia; the chapter 'Torture Camps in Indonesia, 1965-1970' (Annie Pohlman, pp. 137-155) opens with Sudjinah's memoir Terempas Gelombang Pasang. It names Sudjinah and Sulami as fellow leaders of Gerwani who, after eighteen months underground and a clandestine pamphl