Unrest in Indonesia continues
Algemeen Handelsblad (1954-07-02): a Committee of Co-operating Parties of 31 parties and organisations, including PKI, PNI, NU, SOBSI and Gerwani, urges the Dutch government to declare High Commissioner Van Bylandt persona non grata, recall Indonesia's delegation, abolish the Netherlands-Indonesia Union unilaterally an
Cooperating parties want High Commissioner persona non grata
De Gooi- en Eemlander, 2 July 1954: a committee of 31 cooperating parties and organisations, including the PKI, PNI, SOBSI and Gerwani, demands that Dutch High Commissioner Count van Bylandt be declared persona non grata. It also asks for unilateral abolition of the Netherlands-Indonesia Union and a West Irian administ
Indonesian parties: 'Declare Count Van Bylandt persona non grata'
Het Rotterdamsch Parool report (2 Jul 1954, p.3): the Jakarta committee of cooperating parties, 31 parties and organisations including PKI, PNI, Partai Buruh, NU, Perbepsi, Gerwani and SOBSI, urges the government to declare Dutch High Commissioner Count Van Bylandt persona non grata after his statement, and to recall t
Indonesian parties demand Van Bylandt be declared persona non grata
Nieuw Utrechtsch Dagblad, 2 July 1954, p. 3: a committee of 31 cooperating Indonesian parties and organisations, including PKI, PNI, Partai Buruh, NU, Sobsi and Gerwani, urges the government to declare Dutch High Commissioner Count Van Bylandt persona non grata over his statement, and to recall the Indonesian delegatio
Action against Netherlands High Commissioner
Twentsch Dagblad Tubantia (2 Jul 1954): a committee of cooperating parties and organisations, including Gerwani with PKI, PNI, NU and SOBSI, urges the government to declare Netherlands High Commissioner Count van Bylandt persona non grata, recall the delegation from The Hague, end the Union and form a West Irian admini
Indonesian parties act against High Commissioner: committee asks unilateral end of Union
Ons Noorden (3 Jul 1954): a committee of 31 cooperating parties and organisations, Gerwani among them with PKI, PNI, NU and SOBSI, urges the government to declare Netherlands High Commissioner Count van Bylandt persona non grata, recall the delegation from The Hague, end the Netherlands–Indonesia Union and form a West
Indonesian parties act against High Commissioner: committee asks unilateral end of Union
Overijsselsch Dagblad (3 Jul 1954), truncated version of the Reuter/ANP item: a committee of 31 cooperating parties including Gerwani, PKI, PNI and SOBSI asks that Netherlands High Commissioner van Bylandt be declared persona non grata and the delegation recalled from The Hague. Text breaks off.
Indonesian workers greet Piet van Staveren: telegrams on his release
De Waarheid, 6 Aug 1954, p. 3: report of congratulatory telegrams from Indonesia on Piet van Staveren's release from Dutch prison, including from SOBSI, SBPP, Pemuda Rakjat (200,000 members), Sarbupri and the World Federation of Trade Unions. A telegram signed GERWANI, from 'Indonesian women and mothers', thanks him fo
Ekaterina in Java: Soviet delegates and the Gerwani congress
De Nieuwsgier, 7 Aug 1954: a Dutch-Indonesian paper recounts that Russian delegates invited to the Gerwani congress arrived after it ended but toured Java with organisers. Ekaterina Sheveleva's Izvestia report praises roads built by colonisers, laments farmers' primitive tools and notes a women's union meeting at a rai
CIA weekly, 9 August 1954: Recent communist conciliatory gestures and exchanges between the orbit and the non-communist
CIA weekly 'Recent Communist Conciliatory Gestures...' (9 Aug 1954), a long chronology of Soviet-bloc exchanges. The only Gerwani item (p.24, 1 August 1954) says the Indonesian women's organisation GERWANI, labelled Communist-front, was reported planning to send ten women on a three-week tour of the USSR, reciprocating
Meeting with Indonesian women: delegation returns from the Soviet Union
De Waarheid, 8 Sep 1954, p. 5: report on an Indonesian women's delegation passing through Amsterdam after five weeks in the USSR (three in Moscow). Members came from different organisations: Masjumi Islamic women (Samsudin), PM Ali Sastroamidjojo's sister, Partai Buruh, a ministry official, students, Wanita Taman Siswa
FBIS, 25 September 1954: Report on USSR (Gerwani-sponsored meeting)
FBIS item (25 Sep 1954): on 24 September three Indonesian women who recently visited the Soviet Union lectured on their impressions: social care of women, workers, equal rights, absence of prostitution and marriage legislation. The meeting, sponsored by Gerwani, drew a large audience of women and trade unionists. Shows
Peace: Soviet women visit Indonesia (account by Soviet delegates)
De Waarheid, 29 Sep 1954, p. 5: Dutch printing of an account from Soviet Woman by Soviet delegates Alexandra Cholopowa and Jekaterina Sjeweljowa on their three-week visit to Indonesia at Gerwani's invitation. They describe the word 'damai' (peace), women workers' and plantation conditions in East Java and Bandung, the
Znamia, Oct 1954: 'On the Island of Java' (Yekaterina Shevelyova)
Znamia, 31 Oct 1954, p. 124: opening of Yekaterina Shevelyova's travel essay 'On the Island of Java'. She says a Soviet Anti-Fascist Women's Committee delegation, invited by Gerwani, spent almost a month in Java, then summarises Dutch colonialism, the 1949 Round Table settlement, and the 1954 dissolution of the Dutch-I
Mass demonstration in Jakarta demands incorporation of West Irian
De Locomotief, 6 Dec 1954: tens of thousands rally on Merdeka Square, Jakarta, organised by the West Irian liberation committee with women's associations. Speakers include Umi Sardjono of Gerwani, who read out the resolution demanding unilateral incorporation of West Irian, severing relations with the Netherlands and a
Mass demonstration in Jakarta demands incorporation of West Irian (duplicate copy)
Second copy of the De Locomotief report of 6 Dec 1954 on the Merdeka Square mass meeting for West Irian. Umi Sardjono of Gerwani spoke and read the resolution demanding unilateral incorporation, severing of Dutch relations and abrogation of the agreements; text differs slightly in wording ('colonial Dutch government').
Mass demonstration on Medan Merdeka for West Irian
De Nieuwsgier front-page report (6 Dec 1954) on a mass demonstration at Medan Merdeka, Jakarta, organised by the West Irian liberation committee with women's organisations, demanding incorporation of Irian and rupture with the Netherlands. Speakers included Mrs. Sudarman Hadikusumo, Mrs. Kartowijono (Perwari) and Mrs.
Mass demonstration in Jakarta for incorporation of West Irian
Indische Courant voor Nederland, 15 Dec 1954, p. 3: Jakarta mass rally of tens of thousands for the incorporation of West Irian, organised by the liberation committee with the women's organisations' central body. Umi Sardjono of Gerwani reads the resolution demanding severance of relations with the Netherlands; Kartowi
CIA study, May 1955: The Communist Party of Indonesia - a survey of PKI organization and history
CIA study, May 1955, surveying PKI organisation and history before the 1955 elections, with a short section on Gerwani among eight front organisations (pp. 49-50) and PKI foreign channels. Earliest extended US assessment of Gerwani as a PKI front.
WIDF commemorative booklet (Berlin, 1955) for its tenth anniversary: history from the 1945 Paris founding congress, peace and anti-atom campaigns, the 1953 Copenhagen Congress, children's work, the 1955 Lausanne World Congress of Mothers. Page 28 states that in Indonesia 'the women's organization which had 6,000 member
Keynotes of the Council Meeting: Unity and Confidence (Bertrand, 1955)
Simone Bertrand, WIDF Assistant General Secretary, reports in 1955 on the Fifth WIDF Council meeting in Geneva (45 countries). She cites GERWANI as a remarkable example: mostly peasant and plantation women, membership up from 80,000 to 281,000 in a year, and with nine organisations it formed a committee opposing a US b
Working for Peace in Asia (Suharti, 1955)
1955 article by Suharti (Suharti Suwarto), Vice-President of Gerwani, based on her speech at the WIDF Council in Geneva. Links the Bandung Conference to peace; says Gerwani had 281,000 members; calls for reunion of Western Irian; reports women's election preparations, winning the right to be polling officers, support f
WIDF magazine 'Women Write to Us' (1955), country letters after the World Congress of Mothers (Lausanne): Bulgaria, Argentina, France, India floods, and Indonesia. The Indonesia item reports delegate Mme Suryadarma's warm airport welcome, press and radio coverage of her Congress speech, and the Indonesian Women's Movem
Djakarta postpones the evil day (The Observer, 16 January 1955)
The Observer, 16 Jan 1955, p.7, Rawle Knox, 'Djakarta Postpones the Evil Day': impressionistic report from Jakarta on a lively, disorderly capital, the Ali Sastroamidjojo government's dependence on Communist support, Sukarno's drift from impartiality, the delayed first election and anti-Dutch boycotts. A passing quote
Enthusiastic welcome for Soviet trade union delegation in Semarang
De Locomotief, 2 Feb 1955: a Russian trade union delegation, a WFTU representative and SOBSI leaders are welcomed in Semarang by hundreds of SOBSI members, including Gerwani, forming guards of honour along the railway track. A lecture by the Russian guests is planned at the Gedung Kesenian.
Mrs Suharti (Gerwani) and the PMI Volunteer Corps to Geneva (Harian Rakjat, 3 February 1955)
Harian Rakjat, 3 Feb 1955, p. 3: economic and local-news page. Gerwani appears only in a short item on the Palang Merah Indonesia Corps Sukarela (volunteer corps), which refers to Ny. Suharti of Gerwani and a Geneva trip in September 1952. The rest concerns textile imports and licences; OCR is poor and the Gerwani pass
Diane's Diary: New Homeland (Daily News, 9 February 1955)
Daily News (Perth), 9 Feb 1955, p. 18, 'Diane's Diary' women's column. The second item reports Mrs A. Dickie, a Presbyterian minister's wife, who was the Union of Australian Women's delegate to a conference in Djakarta 'conducted by the Indonesian Women's Movement' (about 500 women) in April 1954, then toured Java and
Diane's Diary: New Homeland (Daily News, 9 February 1955), duplicate
Daily News (Perth), 9 Feb 1955, p. 18, 'Diane's Diary' women's column. The second item reports Mrs A. Dickie, a Presbyterian minister's wife, who was the Union of Australian Women's delegate to a conference in Djakarta 'conducted by the Indonesian Women's Movement' (about 500 women) in April 1954, then toured Java and
PKI candidate list: Sulami, general secretary of DPD Gerwani East Java (Harian Rakjat, 23 February 1955)
Harian Rakjat, 23 Feb 1955, p. 3: PKI's list of candidates for the 1955 election (nos. 94-117 visible, with party and non-party 'takberpartai' candidates). No. 100 is Sulami, independent, general secretary of DPD Gerwani East Java; no. 101 Suwarinah, member of DPD Gerwani East Java. Same page: Ny. Mudigdio, vice-chair
Salatiga: International Women's Day, 1955
De Locomotief, 9 Mar 1955: Salatiga's women's federation (10 organisations) marks International Women's Day on 8 March in the people's building; Mrs Kaslah of Gerwani gives the opening speech and Mrs Sugijarto of Rukun Wanita explains the day's meaning, followed by remarks from agencies and parties.