1960s recording of 'Genjer-genjer' (song by Muhammad Arief) sung by popular entertainer Bing Slamet (2:42, one track from a 29-track compilation on the Internet Archive). Shows the song's mainstream popularity before it was banned and tied to the PKI and the Lubang Buaya slander after 1965. Audio description only.
1960s recording of 'Genjer-genjer' (song by Muhammad Arief) sung by popular entertainer Lilis Suryani (2:45, one track from a 35-track compilation on the Internet Archive). Shows the song's mainstream popularity before it was banned and tied to the PKI and the Lubang Buaya slander after 1965. Audio description only.
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
Tharunka (UNSW student paper), 30 July 1975, p. 8, article 'Indonesian Women' on women political prisoners after 1965. It describes Gerwani as the largest left women's organisation, targeted by a press campaign depicting members as sex-maniacs and Lubang Buaya participants, and banned in October 1965. It reports at lea
Tharunka (UNSW student paper), 30 July 1975, p. 8, clean OCR of the article 'Indonesian Women: The Banned Women's Organisation' (same article as GA-00274). It presents Gerwani as unaffiliated with the PKI, then attacked in 1965 by press stories of 'Gerwani prostitutes', 'obscene sex-dancing' and genital mutilation of g
TAPOL Bulletin no. 11, August 1975, on the 'show trials' ahead of the tenth anniversary. Key item (p.3): four women, including Gerwani General Secretary Sulami, sentenced after a five-month trial to 15-20 years for subversion (helping the PKPS movement, illegal cells, alleged recruitment of cooks and seamstresses for L
TAPOL Bulletin no. 18, October 1976. Editorial 'Eleven Years' and reports on Sudomo's reneged release pledges, new arrests, IGGI's $2,400m credit, the death sentence on Sgt-Maj Marsudi for the generals' killings (with testimony that Lubang Buaya training was officially organised by the Air Force), an inside account of
Kinesis (Vancouver feminist paper), June 1977, p.10, 'Women round the World': a section on Indonesian women. It says Gerwani, the largest women's organisation (over one million members), was banned for alleged complicity in the 1965 coup and blamed for atrocities; many members suffered torture and sexual abuse in inter
TAPOL Bulletin no. 27 (London, April 1978) with a Special Supplement on press freedom. Covers student repression, prisoner-release figures, trials and a Buru letter. The supplement notes that in 1965–66 the press published sensational reports of sexual orgies by leftwing organisations, and its list of jailed journalist
TAPOL Bulletin no. 37 (London, January 1980): editorial on the end of KOPKAMTIB's release plan, plus Julie Southwood's long study of 1,014 political trials since 1966. It notes the 1965 Lubang Buaya claim that communist women castrated the generals, and the 1975 subversion trial of Gerwani's Sulami and Sudjinah, with S
Issue no. 71 (September 1985) of TAPOL Bulletin, the British campaign for Indonesian political prisoners. It carries an anonymous ex-prisoner's article on the 'G30S/PKI' symbol, reports on death-row prisoners, the Gatot defence statement, harassment of ex-prisoners and military reorganisation. Gerwani appears only once
TAPOL Bulletin no. 90 (London, Dec 1988): East Timor, Golkar congress, executions of two 1965 Cakrabirawa prisoners, Kopkamtib replaced by Bakorstanas, 'clean-self/clean-environment' screening, and Suharto's role in the G30S. In the G30S article, a section on a 'myth coming unstuck' says the 1965 press claims that Gerw
TAPOL Bulletin no. 169/170 (Jan/Feb 2003), with Carmel Budiardjo's obituary of Sulami (pp. 13-15). Born Sragen 15 Aug 1926, she joined Gerwis (Gerwani from 1951), became East Java executive member (1954) and second deputy secretary-general (1957), attended WIDF meetings, and was deputy secretary-general in 1965. Arrest
TAPOL Bulletin no. 186 (April 2007). A feature (p. 19) notes Sulami's exhumation campaign and that Gerwani, before 1965 'the most active women's organisation', was banned and its members singled out. A review (pp. 21-24) of the book Kembang-kembang Genjer (foreword by Saskia Wieringa) summarises Sumilah, Tami (Njoto's
Anonymous 2009 hip-hop version (4:33, MP3) of 'Genjer-genjer', the Banyuwangi folk song by Muhammad Arief that became associated with the PKI/Gerwani milieu and was banned under the New Order. Shows the song's afterlife in contemporary youth culture. Description only; no lyrics transcribed.
English Wikipedia article (retrieved 13 Oct 2026) on the folk song Genjer-genjer by Muhammad Arief: 1942 Banyuwangi famine origin, 1963 peak on TVRI/RRI, and its place in the Lubang Buaya myth that Pemuda Rakyat and Gerwani sang it while mutilating the generals; banned until 1998. Encyclopedic summary.