De Locomotief, 11 Mar 1954: Salatiga's federation of women's associations marks International Women's Day on 8 March; a Gerwis representative explains the day's origin, followed by a talk on baby care, a health-service film and children's dances. Shows Gerwis giving the political history of the day within a mixed local
De Locomotief, 30 Mar 1954: Muntilan sets up a committee led by the local Gerwis branch to receive a forthcoming visit (April) of representatives of the WIDF and Chinese, Indian, Australian and Dutch women's organisations, to be welcomed at Borobudur. Evidence of Gerwis's WIDF-linked international hospitality.
De Locomotief, 29 July 1954: the Salatiga branch of Gerwani, with Central Java provincial delegates and BTI, SOBSI and women's organisation representatives, discusses implementing the latest congress decisions. Sub-branches will be set up in every subdistrict capital. Gerwani fields no candidates in the elections but i
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).
De Locomotief, 11 Sept 1954: Mrs Surya Hadi, member of the Central Java provincial council's education section, and ten other women including one from 'the left-oriented Gerwis' will visit the Chinese People's Republic at the invitation of the chair of China's federation of democratic women's organisations.
De Locomotief, 16 Nov 1954: a one-line item that Gerwani of Lampung, at its first congress at Tanjungkarang, decided to submit to the government a resolution requesting a ban and confiscation of pornographic reading matter and improper newspaper and film advertisements. Other items (Stork-Werkspoor orders, Tokyo, Phili
De Locomotief, 6 Dec 1954: tens of thousands rally on Merdeka Square, Jakarta, organised by the West Irian liberation committee with women's associations. Speakers include Umi Sardjono of Gerwani, who read out the resolution demanding unilateral incorporation of West Irian, severing relations with the Netherlands and a
Second copy of the De Locomotief report of 6 Dec 1954 on the Merdeka Square mass meeting for West Irian. Umi Sardjono of Gerwani spoke and read the resolution demanding unilateral incorporation, severing of Dutch relations and abrogation of the agreements; text differs slightly in wording ('colonial Dutch government').
De Locomotief, 13 Dec 1954: Semarang public meeting of the West Irian struggle committee draws thousands, with speakers from Gerwani, PSII, PNI, PKI and the Biro Pusat urging national unity. A kilometres-long procession of about 50,000 people followed, with wreaths laid at Tugu Muda.
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.
De Locomotief, 12 Feb 1955: the adat court at Tanjungraja re-examines the Maisuri case, a village girl forced by her father to marry a 45-year-old hadji, who instead married the youth she chose and was sentenced to six months with her husband and uncle. Prominent Palembang women and delegates of Gerwani's South Sumatra
De Locomotief, 12 Feb 1955: follow-up on the Maisuri forced-marriage case. Supplementary testimony shows Maisuri never agreed to marry Hadji Achmad and the match was arranged without her and her mother. The case became a national question through Gerwani and other women's organisations, which see it as breaking the con
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.
De Locomotief, 1 June 1955: report of a PKI mass meeting in Jakarta where Aidit backs the Ali cabinet and urges peaceful election campaigning. Mrs Umi Sardjono, introduced as a non-party Gerwani member and PKI candidate, says she chose the PKI because it is a choice of being for or against the people. Date: the party's
De Locomotief, 9 June 1955: the Semarang branch of Wanita Demokrat Indonesia forms a new board (names garbled; a Soetanti and Sri Soetanti appear) and will again open a Froebel kindergarten on Jalan Karangtempel. Gerwani is not mentioned; the Soetanti here is not identified as Soetanti Aidit.
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
De Locomotief, 7 Sept 1955: the Gerwani branch in Jombang forms a committee, led by a Mrs Kenrati (uncertain), to set up a children's care centre during the coming general elections so mothers can vote calmly. Evidence of Gerwani's practical electoral support for women and childcare.
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.
De Locomotief, 29 Nov 1955: statement by Gerwani's central board (OCR partly garbled) calling for a democratic marriage law, citing the Maisuri forced-marriage case as proof that women's constitutional rights are violated. It urges women to be active in the Constituent Assembly elections and argues the 'first lady' deb
De Locomotief, 30 Nov 1955: Gerwani's central board announces its proposals for marriage regulation to the coming Constituante: marriage without coercion, free choice and equal rights; abolition of child, forced and purchase marriages and mistress-keeping; polygamy to be forbidden in principle, and if allowed on religi
Whole scrambled page of De Locomotief, 30 Nov 1955, with the fullest text of Gerwani's four-point marriage programme for the Constituante: no coercion, abolition of child, forced and purchase marriages and mistresses, polygamy forbidden in principle, divorce open to both sexes before a court and support for divorced wo
De Locomotief, 30 Nov 1955: Gerwani Semarang held an evening of lectures by board members on women's rights and the inequality kept in force by Government Regulation 19 (1952 pensions for plural wives). Speakers recalled the organisation's help in vote counting and childcare centres during the elections. Text partly ga
De Locomotief, 27 Dec 1955: list of passes in Jakarta medical faculty examinations; 'Miss Soetanti Aidit' passed the first part of her exam. Gerwani is not mentioned and the item does not state she is D.N. Aidit's relative.
De Locomotief, 28 Dec 1955: PKI parliamentarians Sakirman, Tjugito, Suwarti, Sumadi and Utarjo submit a written interpellation on foreign capital, claiming colonial-era extraction and restored monopoly under the 1949 RTC accords, with eight questions to the Burhanuddin government. Suwarti is a woman PKI MP; Gerwani is