Gerwani Archive
Researcher log in
Sort: oldest first · newest first · export CSV
GA-02620 1952-05-30 rel A licensed

Analysis of Communist propaganda in Indonesia (OIR 5714.7, 1952)

Analysis of Communist Propaganda in Indonesia (OIR 5714.7, 1952)

OSS/State Department report OIR 5714.7 (30 May 1952) analysing PKI propaganda: party structure, front organisations, relations with international communism and themes. Names Gerwis under Mrs Mudigdo as the communist vehicle competing with Kowani for women, and BTI under S. Sardjono; appendices cover publishing, films,

GA-02396 1958 rel A

Monthly Indonesian Press Survey (1958): Konferensi Nasional Wanita Komunis, Suharti, Setiati Surasto, Salawati

US Monthly Indonesian Press Survey (1958): National Conference of Communist Women

US Monthly Indonesian Press Survey (1958) analysis of the First National Conference of Communist Women (Jakarta, 26-31 May 1958). Aidit's address presents the 'Communist woman' and calls for a wider Gerwani; Suharti Suwarto (Gerwani second deputy chair) and Sundari report on women's groups, only 100,000 women PKI membe

GA-02372 1959-11-12 rel B

Current Intelligence Weekly Summary (12 November 1959)

CIA Current Intelligence Weekly Summary, 12 November 1959

CIA Current Intelligence Weekly Summary, 12 Nov 1959, a long multi-topic report; the Indonesia part (pp.23-27) assesses PKI strength (Aidit's claim of 1.5 million members, Java as base, army and Sukarno restrictions, Aidit's 1959 Moscow and Peking trip). It names GERWANI as the PKI's women's front, alongside Pemuda Rak

GA-03039 1961 rel A licensed

The Communist Party of Indonesia, 1951-1961: A Decade of the Aidit Leadership (PhD thesis, Australian National University)

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

GA-02936 1962 rel B licensed

Dilemmas of Indonesian Communism

Dilemmas of Indonesian Communism (van der Kroef, 1962)

Article by Justus M. van der Kroef (Pacific Affairs, summer 1962) on the PKI's dilemmas under Guided Democracy: dependence on Sukarno, the July 1960 'Evaluation' clash with the army, and the party's use of mass fronts. Gerwani is named as the PKI's women's front: its organ was aggressive without censure in 1961, and in

GA-00991 1964-03-12 Friese Koerier OnafhankelijK Dagblad Voor Friesland En Aangrenzende Gebieden rel B

De boer opgegaan (communisten op het Indonesische platteland)

Gone to the farmer: communists in the Indonesian countryside

Friese Koerier travel/feature piece (12 Mar 1964, p.11) on how Indonesian communists won rural support via relief after Darul Islam raids, farming advice, theatre, wayang and badminton. It states the communists founded nominally non-communist organisations: BTI, Gerwani ('the Indonesian women's movement') and Pemuda Ra

GA-02613 1964-09 rel B licensed

Indonesia: Communist parties and internal politics (LBJ National Security Files, September 1964-February 1965)

LBJ National Security File: Indonesia, Communist Parties and Internal Politics (Sept 1964-Feb 1965)

LBJ Library National Security File, Indonesia (Sept 1964-Feb 1965): White House/State memoranda, Djakarta cables and CIA OCI reports on Sukarno's leftward drift, 'Sukarnoism' anti-PKI movement, succession, Malaysia and the USIS library crisis. Includes the CIA 'Sukarno and the Communists' report, listing Women's Front

GA-02380 1964-10-23 rel B licensed

CIA Office of Current Intelligence, Sukarno and the Communists (Special Report SC 00642/64A, 23 October 1964)

CIA Special Report SC 00642/64A, 23 October 1964: Sukarno and the Communists

CIA Office of Current Intelligence Special Report SC 00642/64A, 'Sukarno and the Communists' (23 Oct 1964, Secret; declassified 1975). Analyses Sukarno's mutual exploitation with the PKI and Aidit's strategy; lists PKI front membership claims, including Gerwani at almost two million, beside BTI, SOBSI, Pemuda Rakjat an

GA-02612 1964-10-23 rel B licensed

CIA, 'Sukarno and the Communists' (Office of Current Intelligence, 23 October 1964)

CIA, 'Sukarno and the Communists' (Office of Current Intelligence, 23 Oct 1964)

CIA Office of Current Intelligence report 'Sukarno and the Communists' (23 Oct 1964, ten pages), pre-coup assessment of the PKI-Sukarno relationship. Describes PKI growth to a claimed three million members and its fronts, including the Women's Front (GERWANI), 'almost two million'; also the cabinet, National Front, lan

GA-02561 1965 rel B licensed

Indonesia: Periodic Reports on Internal Political Situation (FO 371/180309, 1965)

FO 371/180309: Periodic Reports on Indonesia's Internal Political Situation (1965)

UK Foreign Office file FO 371/180309 (1965), periodic reports on Indonesia's internal political situation, mostly weekly letters from the British Embassy in Djakarta (S.J.G. Cambridge, M.J.T. McCann) to D. Tonkin, January to July 1965, with Antara and press extracts. It covers Aidit and the arming of peasants, Chairul

GA-02391 1965-06 rel A

Lima Belas Tahun Gerwani (Harian Rakjat, 4 Juni 1965; terjemahan JPRS 30968)

Fifteen Years of Gerwani (Harian Rakjat, 4 June 1965; JPRS 30968)

JPRS 30968 translation of the unsigned Harian Rakjat article 'Fifteen Years of Gerwani' (4 June 1965). Traces three periods: Gerwis (1950, 500 members; 74,977 by 1954 Congress), Gerwani (631,342 in 1957; 1,056,436 in 1961), and support for the women's front. Covers Melati kindergartens, peasant integration, the Kowani

GA-02937 1970 rel B licensed

Indonesian Communism since the 1965 Coup

Indonesian Communism since the 1965 Coup (van der Kroef, 1970)

Article by Justus M. van der Kroef (Pacific Affairs, spring 1970) on the PKI underground and army counter-campaign after 1965, from the Blitar and Purwodadi operations to political prisoners and Moscow/Beijing exile factions. Gerwani appears once (p.50): arrests of former Communists 'including members of Gerwani (the P

GA-03048 1976 rel C licensed

The Crescent Arises over the Banyan Tree: A Study of the Muhammadijah Movement in a Central Javanese Town

The Crescent Arises over the Banyan Tree: Muhammadiyah in a Central Javanese Town (Nakamura, 1976)

Mitsuo Nakamura's 1976 Cornell PhD thesis, an ethnography and local history of the Muhammadiyah reform movement in Kotagede, Yogyakarta, arguing that Islamization of Java is an ongoing, internally generated process. Gerwani appears only in passing (p. 208), listed with Pemuda Rakyat and Lekra as PKI-influenced mass org

GA-00267 1978-01-19 Papua New Guinea Post-Courier rel B

After 12 Years Freedom (Post-Courier, 19 Jan 1978)

After 12 Years Freedom (Post-Courier, 19 January 1978)

Papua New Guinea Post-Courier, 19 January 1978, p. 5, feature by George Oliver on the release of 10,000 political prisoners held since the 1965 coup, with PKI members forced to swear loyalty. It describes the Category A, B, C system, the 1965-66 massacres (estimates up to half a million killed), Amnesty International's

GA-00268 1978-01-19 Papua New Guinea Post-Courier rel B

After 12 Years Freedom (Post-Courier, 19 Jan 1978)

After 12 Years Freedom (Post-Courier, 19 January 1978), clean OCR

Papua New Guinea Post-Courier, 19 January 1978, p. 5, clean OCR of George Oliver's feature on the release of 10,000 political prisoners held since the 1965 coup (same article as GA-00267). It covers the official and alternative accounts of 30 September, killings of perhaps half a million, half to three-quarters of a mi

GA-03064 1988 rel B licensed

Losing a Revolution: The PKI versus the Army in Indonesia, 1949-1965

Losing a Revolution: The PKI versus the Army in Indonesia, 1949-1965 (Sutley, 1988)

Stewart K. Sutley's MA thesis (Political Science, McGill, 1988) applies Tilly and Aya's 'political conflict' model to the PKI-Army struggle of 1949-65, arguing the PKI's state-within-a-state depended on Sukarno and was destroyed after the army struck at the president. Gerwani is treated only as the PKI's 'women's front

GA-03058 2015 rel C licensed

Ripples, Echoes, and Reverberations: 1965 and Now in Indonesia (PhD Berkeley, 2015)

Ripples, Echoes, and Reverberations: 1965 and Now in Indonesia (Stroud, 2015)

Martha Stroud's 2015 UC Berkeley/UCSF medical-anthropology dissertation, based on fieldwork in Yogyakarta (2010-12), examines how the 1965-66 killings shape daily life through propaganda, surveillance, stigma, silence and justice. Gerwani appears mainly as the object of New Order propaganda: the Lubang Buaya mutilation

GA-02296 2021-10-02 Tempo rel A licensed

Propaganda Hitam terhadap Gerwani

Tempo, 2 October 2021: Black propaganda against Gerwani (Ita Fatia Nadia)

Op-ed by Ita Fatia Nadia in Tempo (2 Oct 2021) tracing the army-controlled press campaign from 7 Oct 1965 that cast Gerwani as sexually sadistic, contradicted by the military doctors' autopsy (Roebiono Kertapati). It links the slander to the mass killings, Kowani's expulsion of Gerwani (29 Oct 1965), Lubang Buaya volun

GA-03042 2023 rel C licensed

Fashioning Authoritarianism: Militarization of Society in Indonesia, 1930-1966

Fashioning Authoritarianism: Militarization of Society in Indonesia, 1930-1966 (Joshua, 2023)

PhD dissertation (Northwestern, 2023) by Norman Joshua on the militarization of Indonesian society, 1930-1966. It argues the Army intervened in non-military affairs through the 'twin logics' of emergency powers and counterinsurgency, culminating in the New Order. Gerwani appears only in passing: p. 428 gives its claime