Women Write to Us From Everywhere: Indonesia (Darmini, 1954)
Short 1954 item in WIDF's 'Women Write to Us From Everywhere' by Darmini, Assistant General Secretary of Gerwani. She reports the Gerwani congress as a success, with WIDF representative Monica Felton present and foreign delegates (Dutch, Australian, Soviet) touring the country, a first in Indonesian women's movement hi
Dawn Over the Equator: Monica Felton on the Second Gerwani Congress, 1954
Monica Felton (WIDF Vice-President) writes in 1954 on the Second Congress of Gerwani, which she attended: 349 delegates, 80,000 members, a meeting with President Sukarno, resolutions on West Irian, the 1955 elections, a nationwide marriage law, democratic rights and support for the government against armed gangs. She s
Untruthful communist business: Gerwani congress in Jakarta
De Maasbode, 5 Apr 1954: Sukarno receives at the palace women attending the Gerwani congress in Jakarta (described as a continuation of the communist Gerwis). The Dutch communist MP Mrs Lips-Odinot conveys the 'peace-loving' Dutch people's support; Sukarno says New Guinea is the main barrier to good relations. Shows Ge
We need their friendship: 80 million Indonesians
Tribune (Sydney), 12 May 1954, p. 11: Allison Dickie, Union of Australian Women delegate, reports on the 1954 Indonesian women's congress. She describes Gerwis, the league of women 'more politically awake', whose work helped hundreds of thousands become literate and from which Gerwani developed; the six-day Gerwani Nat
We need their friendship: 80 million Indonesians
Tribune (Sydney), 12 May 1954, p. 11: Allison Dickie, Union of Australian Women delegate, reports on the 1954 Indonesian women's congress. She describes Gerwis, the league of women 'more politically awake', whose work helped hundreds of thousands become literate and from which Gerwani developed; the six-day Gerwani Nat
A great and strong people fights for a better life: Rie Lips on Java
De Waarheid, 12 May 1954, p. 5: opening of an interview with Rie Lips, vice-chair of the NVB, back from six weeks on Java after the Gerwis/Gerwani congress. She rejects stereotypes of Indonesians as lazy, dirty or stupid, citing women who work in factories or walk hours to attend meetings of the women's movement, 'the
Gerwani central board (80,000 members) supports the WIDF at ECOSOC (Bintang Timur, 29 May 1954)
Bintang Timur (Jakarta daily), 29 May 1954, p. 2 of a multi-article issue; only one item concerns Gerwani. Its central board (DPP Gerwani), speaking for 80,000 members, protests to the UN against ECOSOC's removal of the WIDF from consultative status, citing a letter from WIDF president Eugenie Cotton, and demands reins
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
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
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
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
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.
Signature campaign against atomic war begins in Indonesia
De Waarheid, 9 Mar 1955, p. 2: Jakarta report on the start of a signature campaign against atomic war, signed by ministers, professors and Masjumi's Wiwoho. Gerwani called on all women to join, aiming for 10,000 signatures in 12 weeks. A Peace Committee delegation was received by Sukarno; wives of the Jakarta mayor and
CIA intelligence survey of the PKI's history, structure and front organisations, May 1955, before the September 1955 elections. Section III.E (report pp. 49-50) profiles Gerwani: founded 1950 as Gerwis, renamed Gerwani at the March 1954 congress, 25,000+ members, S.K. Trimurti general chairman and Umi Sardjono chairman
Pravda, 4 Jul 1955: World Congress of Mothers; the situation in Indonesia
Pravda, 4 July 1955 (selected pages 1, 3, 4). Page 3: WIDF deputy secretary Z. Ivanova on preparations for the World Congress of Mothers (Lausanne, 7-10 July); says WIDF established cooperation in Indonesia with 'the numerous women's organization Gerwani' and the plantation workers' union, and that Indonesia's committe
Pravda, 4 Jul 1955: Gerwani named in article on World Congress of Mothers (excerpt)
Keyword-hit excerpt of Pravda, 4 July 1955, from the article on preparing the World Congress of Mothers (Lausanne). Records that WIDF organisations established cooperation in Indonesia with 'the numerous women's organization Gerwani' and the plantation workers' union, alongside links in Australia, New Zealand, Norway,
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
Let Us Respect All Opinions: speeches by Teng Ying-chao, Hajrah Begum and Suharti (1956)
1956 page of speeches to the WIDF Council: Teng Ying-chao (China), Hajrah Begum (India) and Suharti, Gerwani Vice-President and MP. Suharti reports Gerwani membership grew from 281,000 to 565,147, its cooperation at the Palembang Women's Congress (March 1955), International Children's Day events, and delegations demand
1956 WIDF bulletin item on Indonesia: the Gerwani Central Council's report on cooperation with other women's organisations, overcoming mistrust, membership rising from 281,000 to 565,147, local marriage-rights actions, rural work with peasant groups, the All-Indonesia Women's Congress adopting Gerwani's proposed Charte
Gerwani central board welcomes the World Conference of Working Women (Bintang Timur, 14 February 1956)
Bintang Timur (Jakarta daily), 14 Feb 1956, p. 1 of a multi-article issue. The headline item reports that the DPP Gerwani welcomed with enthusiasm the call for a World Conference of Working Women (WIDF-linked), with a related Gerwani meeting mentioned; OCR is badly garbled so details are uncertain. Other news concerns
ACDWF telegrams for 8 March to women's groups incl. Gerwani (Renmin Ribao, 8 March 1956)
Xinhua note in Renmin Ribao, 8 Mar 1956 (p. 4): the All-China Democratic Women's Federation sent International Women's Day telegrams to women's bodies in India, Burma, Pakistan, Egypt and Japan and, in Indonesia, to Gerwani, to Kowani (the Indonesian Women's Congress) and to the Indonesian Women's 8 March Commemoration
ACDWF telegrams for 8 March to women's groups incl. Gerwani (Renmin Ribao, 8 March 1956)
Xinhua note in Renmin Ribao, 8 Mar 1956 (p. 4): the All-China Democratic Women's Federation sent International Women's Day telegrams to women's bodies in India, Burma, Pakistan, Egypt and Japan and, in Indonesia, to Gerwani, to Kowani (the Indonesian Women's Congress) and to the Indonesian Women's 8 March Commemoration
Women's delegates speak at WIDF Council; Suharti, Gerwani vice-chairman (Renmin Ribao, 26 April 1956)
Xinhua report in Renmin Ribao, 26 Apr 1956 (p. 1), on day two of the WIDF Council meeting in Beijing, with speeches from Indian, German, Malagasy, Argentine, Soviet, Tunisian and British delegates. Suharti, WIDF Council member and vice-chairman of Gerwani, says Indonesian women's organisations are growing, oppose US ef
Women's delegates speak at WIDF Council; Suharti, Gerwani vice-chairman (Renmin Ribao, 26 April 1956)
Xinhua report in Renmin Ribao, 26 Apr 1956 (p. 1), on day two of the WIDF Council meeting in Beijing, with speeches from Indian, German, Malagasy, Argentine, Soviet, Tunisian and British delegates. Suharti, WIDF Council member and vice-chairman of Gerwani, says Indonesian women's organisations are growing, oppose US ef
Speeches at the WIDF Council, part 1 (Renmin Ribao, 7 May 1956)
Renmin Ribao, 7 May 1956, p. 5: abridged speeches (part 1) at the WIDF Council meeting in Beijing. Includes a short statement by Mrs Suharti for Gerwani, welcoming the Bandung resolutions, reporting that Gerwani set up the national preparatory committee and delegation for the Lausanne World Assembly of Mothers, and not
Speeches at the WIDF Council, part 1 (Renmin Ribao, 7 May 1956)
Renmin Ribao, 7 May 1956, p. 5: abridged speeches (part 1) at the WIDF Council meeting in Beijing. Includes a short statement by Mrs Suharti for Gerwani, welcoming the Bandung resolutions, reporting that Gerwani set up the national preparatory committee and delegation for the Lausanne World Assembly of Mothers, and not