Asia-Pacific peace conference preparations; Indonesian sponsors include Gerwis chair (Renmin Ribao, 17 May 1952)
Xinhua report in Renmin Ribao, 17 May 1952 (p. 1), on responses from twenty countries to Soong Ching-ling and Guo Moruo's call for an Asian and Pacific Regional Peace Conference in Beijing. For Indonesia it lists eleven sponsors named in April, including Suwati (Suwarti), MP and chairman of Gerwis, plus Setiadi, Siauw
Asia-Pacific peace conference preparations; Indonesian sponsors include Gerwis chair (Renmin Ribao, 17 May 1952)
Xinhua report in Renmin Ribao, 17 May 1952 (p. 1), on responses from twenty countries to Soong Ching-ling and Guo Moruo's call for an Asian and Pacific Regional Peace Conference in Beijing. For Indonesia it lists eleven sponsors named in April, including Suwati (Suwarti), MP and chairman of Gerwis, plus Setiadi, Siauw
FBIS, 17 May 1952: Conference appeal receives responses (Asia-Pacific Peace Conference)
FBIS-monitored Xinhua report (17 May 1952) on responses from 20 countries to the call for an Asia-Pacific Peace Conference in Peking. The Indonesian section lists 11 sponsors chosen in April, including Suwarti, member of Parliament and president of Gerwis, plus Setiadi, Tjoa Sik Ien, Dharta (Lekra), Djawoto (Antara), S
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
Conclusions of the Housewives' Seminar (1964)
Api Kartini (1964) publication of the conclusions of the Gerwani National Seminar on Housewives. Four commissions set out positions on solidarity (Vietnam, China's nuclear test), Dwikora and 'crushing Malaysia', landreform and the UUPA/UUPBH, rat-eradication campaign under Aidit and Asmu, anti-corruption demands, a dem
Chinese women's federation and four bodies cable support for Indonesia's withdrawal from the UN
Xinhua dispatches in Renmin Ribao (13 Jan 1965, p. 2): five Chinese bodies cable Indonesian counterparts backing Sukarno's UN withdrawal. The All-China Women's Federation's telegram to Kowani, Gerwani, Marhaenist women, Muslimat NU and another group calls the UN a 'paper tiger' and pledges unity with '104 million' Indo
FBIS-monitored Xinhua report (25 Apr 1965): Premier Zhou Enlai, in Jakarta for the Bandung anniversary, received Indonesia-China Friendship Association and mass-organisation representatives, among them SOBSI chair Mohammad Munir, the Peasants' Front, and Mme Mudikdio (Mudigdio), leader of the Indonesian Women's Movemen
Premier Zhou receives Indonesian mass organisation representatives (snippet)
Snippet-only Renmin Ribao extract (27 Apr 1965, p. 3): Premier Zhou receives representatives of Indonesian mass organisations, including Mrs Mudigdio, Gerwani leader, with SOBSI, BTI, Pemuda Rakyat and Lekra leaders; truncated. Full text is GA-01968.
Aidit's political report to the PKI Fourth Plenum (snippet)
Snippet-only Renmin Ribao extract (12 June 1965, p. 3) from Aidit's political report to the PKI's enlarged Fourth Plenum, 'Intensify the revolutionary offensive on all fronts'. The visible sentence says SOBSI, BTI, Pemuda Rakyat, Gerwani, Lekra and CGMI are beginning to give Marxist education to their membership; trunc
PKI Affiliates Including Gerwani Suspended (FBIS, 18-21 Oct 1965)
FBIS Daily Report pages (19 and 21 Oct 1965; HathiTrust scans) with the Jakarta war administrator's reporting order: from 19 to 24 October board members of PKI, Pemuda Rakjat, Gerwani, BTI, CGMI, Perhimi, IPPI, Lekra and HSI must report to police or military posts or face action. Also the bans on PKI and affiliates, Ge
Izvestiia, 19 Oct 1965: Communist Party banned in Djakarta
Izvestiia, 19 Oct 1965, p. 1, TASS: Jakarta military administrator Maj. Gen. Umar Wirahadikusumah banned the PKI and affiliates in Jakarta, naming Pemuda Rakyat, Gerwani, BTI, CGMI, HSI, Lekra and others; executives must report to police or army or be punished under emergency law.
Stance of other parties in Indonesia: statements demanding dissolution of PKI and mass organisations
Renmin Ribao compilation (20 Oct 1965, p. 5) of Indonesian organisations' statements after 30 September, taken from Radio Republik Indonesia and Antara. Nahdlatul Ulama and affiliates, Perti and others demand dissolution of the PKI, Pemuda Rakyat and Gerwani; the NU text alleges Gerwani and Pemuda Rakyat members were t
Two decisions of the Jakarta commander suspending the PKI and its mass organisations
Renmin Ribao (20 Oct 1965, p. 3) prints, from Radio Republik Indonesia, two decisions of 18 October 1965 by Jakarta commander Umar Wirahadikusumah: temporary suspension of all activities of the PKI, Pemuda Rakyat, Gerwani, BTI, CGMI and others; and a duty on leaders (Gerwani included, down to branch level) to report to
Berliner Zeitung, 20 Oct 1965, p. 5: Communist Party of Indonesia banned
Berliner Zeitung, 20 October 1965, p. 5: TASS/ADN brief "KP Indonesiens verboten" from Djakarta. The Jakarta military governor (OCR: Birahadikusumo, i.e. Umar Wirahadikusumah) issued a temporary ban on the PKI and its "affiliated organisations" in the Jakarta area, explicitly listing Pemuda Rakjat and "Gerwani (Fraueno
Neues Deutschland, 20 Oct 1965, p. 1: Communist Party of Indonesia banned in Djakarta
Neues Deutschland, 20 October 1965, p. 1: ADN/TASS report 'KP Indonesiens in Djakarta verboten'. Jakarta's military governor, Maj.-Gen. Umar Wirahadikusumah, issued a temporary ban on the PKI and its affiliated organisations for the Jakarta area, explicitly naming Pemuda Rakyat and Gerwani (women's organisation), the p
Words and deeds of the Indonesian army: Nasution and Suharto statements reprinted
Renmin Ribao (7 Nov 1965, p. 5) reprints Indonesian army statements from radio and Antara: Nasution's 25 October speech on 'slander' and purges, Suharto's 30 October Bandung speech calling the PKI the 'protagonist' and Pemuda Rakyat and Gerwani members 'supporting roles' of the movement, an army information chief's int
Women Demonstrate for PKI and Affiliates Ban, Condemn Gerwani (FBIS, 9 Nov 1965)
FBIS Daily Report pages (9 Nov 1965; HathiTrust scans pp.155-157): after a Sukarno-era Heroes Day speech text, ANTARA reports a 30,000-strong demonstration by housewives and girl students from about 30 women's organisations (NU, Perti, Muslim, Christian, Catholic) received by Suharto and Sudibjo. They demanded a PKI an
The Dance That Makes You Vanish: Cultural Reconstruction in Post-Genocide Indonesia (Larasati, 2013)
Rachmi Larasati's 2013 introduction and chapter on how the New Order erased the dancing bodies of women labelled 'Gerwani' after 1965 and replaced them with state-trained 'clean' dancers performing the same traditions as national heritage. Autoethnographic study of dance and genocide.
Years of Dressing Dangerously: Modern Women, National Identity and Moral Crisis in Sukarno's Indonesia (Sullivan, 2020)
Charles P. Sullivan's PhD dissertation (History, University of Michigan, 2020) reads Indonesian women's magazines (Wanita, Puspa Wanita, Varia) from 1945-66 to argue that the Lubang Buaya narrative about Gerwani worked as a 'post-text' of long-running anxieties over modernity, moral crisis and the 'Mother of the Nation
Tempo.co, 29 September 2021: Organisations considered affiliated with the PKI
Tempo.co explainer (29 Sept 2021) on organisations 'considered affiliated' with the PKI: Gerwani, Lekra, SOBSI, Pemuda Rakjat. It states, citing Wieringa, that Gerwis became Gerwani at its 1954 second congress, electing PKI member Umi Sardjono as chair. Short, background-level.
Tempo, 2 October 2021: Gerwani, Sukarno and polygamy (Gerwani and the dilemma of brotherhood)
Tempo essay (2 Oct 2021) by I Gusti Agung Ayu Ratih on why Gerwani did not criticise Sukarno's polygamy. It recounts Kowani expelling Gerwani on 29 Oct 1965 and removing Hurustiati Subandrio in 1966, the erasure of Gerwani from women's movement history, Perwari rivalry, Gerwani members' reverence for Sukarno, and anti-
Tempo, 15 December 2024: Francisca Fanggidaej's network in the international women's movement
Tempo magazine article (15 Dec 2024, Ita Fatia Nadia and Iwan Kurniawan) on Francisca Fanggidaej in the international women's and Afro-Asian movements: IUS/WFDY Prague 1947, Berlin Youth Festival 1951, Bandung 1955, WIDF in East Germany 1957 representing Gerwani, Cairo 1961. It cites Gita Mukherjee's WIDF report on Ger
From the Men They Took Their Labor, from the Women They Took Everything (Sarbinatun, transl. Florida, 2025)
Nancy Florida's annotated English translation (Indonesia, Oct 2025) of Sarbinatun's testimony: Lekra dancer and IPPI president, married at 17 to a PKI Special Bureau man, tortured in Solo and Semarang, held at Plantungan until 1979 and accused as Gerwani though never a member.