Neues Deutschland, 15 Apr 1954, p. 5: Radioactive clouds over Mexico (Djakarta report on the national conference of the
Neues Deutschland, 15 April 1954, p. 5: under the headline "Radioaktive Wolken über Mexiko", a roundup of ADN items on US hydrogen-bomb tests includes a Djakarta item: the national conference of the Indonesian women's movement appealed to the world's peoples to avert the H-bomb threat and secure lasting peace, alongsid
Impressive ceremony on the invasion beach (with item on Gerwani and the Union)
Het Vaderland front page (8 Jun 1954) opening with Dutch resistance veterans' wreath-laying at the Normandy invasion beaches, followed by Indonesian news. A short passage 'Indon. comm. women and the Union' says the Indonesian feminist movement Gerwani, recently hostess to delegations of communist women from Russia and
Joint declaration of thirty parties (abolition of the Netherlands-Indonesian Union)
Het Nieuwsblad voor Sumatra (24 Jun 1954, p.1): the Jakarta cooperation committee of about thirty parties and organisations, including PNI, PKI, Partai Buruh, Pemuda Rakjat, Gerwani, SOBSI, BTI and Wanita Rakjat, issued a joint declaration demanding immediate abolition of the Indonesian-Dutch Union, blaming Dutch imper
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
17 August committee in Jakarta with Gerwani in secretariat
De Nieuwsgier, 8 July 1954: Jakarta forms a committee to celebrate 17 August for national unity, abolition of the Netherlands-Indonesia Union and the return of West Irian; its secretariat, at the Balai Kota, is run by Gerwani, SOBSI and FPI. No Soetanti Aidit; Gerwani appears only as a secretariat organiser.
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
Transmigration to South Sumatra; Medan cooperation body resolution
De Locomotief, 24 Aug 1954: a note on 50 families transmigrating from Purwokerto to South Sumatra, and a brief item that the Medan Badan Kerdjasama Nasional (BKN), to which PKI, PNI, SKI and Gerwani are affiliated, urged by resolution that the mayor be relieved of his post (text breaks off).
Medan cooperation body demands mayor's resignation
De Nieuwsgier, 24 Aug 1954: the Medan Badan Kerdjasama Nasional, to which PKI, PNI, SKI and Gerwani are affiliated, adopts a resolution urging the government to relieve Medan's mayor A.N. Djalaluddin. Same item as in De Locomotief of the same date.
Report on New Guinea
Algemeen Indisch Dagblad (1954-08-26, p. 2): first item on the Dutch UN report on New Guinea for 1953. A final line says the Badan Kerdjasama Nasional in Medan, affiliating PKI, PNI, SKI and Gerwani, urged the government to dismiss Medan's mayor A.M. Djalaluddin.
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
Council sessions in Bandung
Algemeen Indisch Dagblad (1954-11-30, p. 2): notes on Bandung provincial, municipal and regency council sessions. A final paragraph says the Bandung branch of Gerwani backs the Ali-Arif cabinet because of its security policy, asks for the 'undemocratic' West Java provincial council to be dissolved, and calls for a very
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
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.
A home
Fragmentary Algemeen Indisch Dagblad item 'Een tehuis' (1955-06-02, p. 2): proposal for a children's home with expert carers for neglected children of working or ill parents. The plan arose at a meeting of main women's organisations, including Perwari, Budi Isteri and Gerwani, in Bandung; a founding committee formed on
Pravda, 5 Aug 1955: government crisis in Indonesia; telegrams from Gerwani
Pravda, 5 August 1955, No. 217, page 6, supplied as a Claude machine translation of the Indonesia item. A TASS dispatch from Jakarta on the cabinet crisis (Harahap of Masjumi asked to form a government) says Harian Rakjat printed dozens of telegrams from SOBSI, BTI, the women's organisation Gerwani and Pemuda Rakjat in
Against the composition of the new cabinet: Semarang meeting rejects Burhanuddin cabinet
De Locomotief, 12 Aug 1955: a Semarang provincial meeting of mass and women's organisations rejects the new Burhanuddin cabinet and demands an all-party cabinet and elections on schedule. A five-person delegation to Jakarta represents workers (SOBSI), youth, women (Gerwani), peasants and ex-fighters. Shows Gerwani as t
Ten years of the Republic (Cor Geugjes)
De Waarheid, 17 Aug 1955, p. 3: Cor Geugjes's article for the Republic's tenth anniversary, covering Dutch colonial violence, the Bandung Conference, the Ali Sastroamidjojo government's fall and replacement by a Masjumi-PSI cabinet under Harahap, and the PKI's election platform. It lists Gerwani only as 'the strong wom
Harian Rakjat, 31 August 1955, p. 4
Harian Rakjat, 31 Agustus 1955, hlm. 4. Advertisement and notice page with an election comic strip; panel 6 shows Aminah meeting Gerwani activists who organise women's teams for childcare, drinks and medical help at polling.
Central Java news: Salatiga election campaign schedule
De Locomotief, 23 Sept 1955, Central Java news: Salatiga campaign schedule lists Gerwani among parties with election meetings at the Gris Theatre (23 Sept afternoon), alongside Masjumi, PIR and PNI. The rest covers people's housing built in Salatiga.
Events in Indonesia (conclusion): Harahap government and mass organisations
De Waarheid, 8 Oct 1955, p. 3: final part of Cor Geugjes's series on events in Indonesia, arguing the Harahap government (which replaced Ali Sastroamidjojo) is resisted: elections could not be postponed, New Guinea was raised at the UN, and preliminary results defeat Masjumi and PSI. Cites PKI (500,000), SOBSI (3 milli
Successful festive evening of the Dutch Women's Movement (ten years of WIDF)
De Waarheid, 12 Dec 1955, p. 3: report on the NVB's festive evening in Amsterdam for the WIDF's tenth anniversary, with a speech by Betty Zeehandelaar on equal pay and women's rights, a Belgian greeting, and a Scapino ballet programme. At the close, letters were sent to the WIDF and to Gerwani asserting Indonesia's rig
First Lady
Short Algemeen Indisch Dagblad item 'First Lady' (1955-12-31, p. 1): Perwari chair Mrs. Kartowijono says any socially acceptable woman can be First Lady and urges a marriage law quickly. Muslimat (Masyumi) and Gerwani are still deliberating on the question and could not yet comment, in the context of the Sukarno marria
Better roads
Short Algemeen Indisch Dagblad item 'Betere wegen' (1956-01-03, p. 2): at the Wanita Demokrat's instigation, the village of Tjoblong in North Bandung sets up a road-improvement committee led by lurah Ateng Sutisna. Members include PSII, PKI, Wanita Demokrat, Gerwani, Permai, PNI, NU and the local guard; first project i
America offers Jakarta economic aid - Dulles in Indonesia
Arnhemsche Courant, 13 Mar 1956 (UP-Reuters): John Foster Dulles visits Sukarno in Jakarta and informally offers economic aid. A young woman of Gerwani among about two dozen protesters shouting 'Abolish SEATO' threw a piece of paper at his car and was detained for questioning.
BP4 congress
Short Algemeen Indisch Dagblad item (1956-06-21, p. 2): the BP4 (marriage-counselling body) will hold its first Indonesian congress in August. Gerwani had applied some time earlier for BP4 membership without a decision; nineteen organisations are affiliated so far.
Communist Campaign in Indonesia (OIR report, July 1956)
State Department intelligence report (17 July 1956) on the Soviet and Chinese communist campaign in Indonesia after the 1956 visits, with a chronology of Indonesia-China exchanges. Gerwani features only in the chronology: a May 1956 Gerwani protest against US H-bomb tests, plus Indonesian delegations to the WIDF meetin