US Embassy Despatches on PKI Tactics and the SOBSI Women's Labour Seminar, May 1961
US Embassy Djakarta despatches to the State Department, May 1961. One reports conservative views (Mohammad Roem) that the PKI won a limited victory by gaining legal recognition. The other reports the SOBSI National Seminar on Labouring Women (Jakarta, 11-14 May 1961), attended by Djuanda and Gerwani central board membe
FBIS, 12 September 1961: Indonesian women's delegation (to China)
FBIS-monitored Xinhua item (12 Sep 1961): an Indonesian women's delegation left Jakarta for China at the invitation of the PRC Women's Federation, led by Mme Rusiah Sardjono (Persatuan Wanita Republik Indonesia) and including MP Mme Salawati of the Indonesian Women's Movement (Gerwani), MP Mme Wahid Hasjim, Mme Sulardi
US Embassy Reports on Women's Organizations and Friendship-Society Regulation, Oct 1961
US Embassy Djakarta despatches, Oct 1961: transmittal of the July 1961 war-administrator regulation on international friendship societies, and the report 'Role of Women in Indonesia: Women's Organizations' with a memorandum of conversation with Maria Ulfah Santoso (8 March 1961) and biographic notes. It describes Gerwa
US Monthly Indonesian Press Survey (1961-62): Fourth Gerwani Congress
Short US Monthly Indonesian Press Survey extract (1961-62) on the Fourth Congress of Gerwani (Jakarta, 14-17 Dec 1961), with an address by Sukarno. Reports 1,120,594 members and branches in 22 provinces, state support (Social Welfare funds, city rice), and educational work: 46,785 registered in literacy courses (25,166
US Embassy Weekly Situation Telegrams, April 1962
Two US Embassy Djakarta weekly situation telegrams (JOINT WEEKA 14 and 15), 6 and 13 April 1962, on the West New Guinea dispute, PKI-Sukarno friction, Partindo, wage demands and military matters. Gerwani appears only once: it joined SOBSI and others in protesting the 'undemocratic' draft election bill providing for pop
US Monthly Indonesian Press Survey (1962-63): Aidit's speech at the Gerwani Training Center, October 1962
US Monthly Indonesian Press Survey (1962-63) extract on D.N. Aidit's speech at the Gerwani Training Center on 23 and 27 Oct 1962, in the debate over 'nationalising' Chinese-sounding names. Aidit calls the demand racialism and says reactionaries fan anti-Chinese feeling. Shows the PKI chair addressing a Gerwani cadre sc
FBIS, 22 May 1963: Envoy expresses concern over Java riots
FBIS-monitored Xinhua item (22 May 1963): Chinese ambassador Yao Chung-ming called on Deputy Foreign Minister Suwito over anti-Chinese disturbances in Indonesia, especially West Java, and welcomed Sukarno's 19 May speech to a meeting of 'Indonesian women' condemning counterrevolutionary disturbances. Suwito pledged ste
Foreign Office/CRO Papers on the PKI and Malaysia Confrontation (DO 169/516, 1964)
British Commonwealth Relations Office/Foreign Office file (DO 169/516, 1964) on Indonesia and Malaysia. It combines handwritten minutes, an IRD intelligence paper on the PKI (Aidit's December 1963 plenum, Sino-Soviet line, the prospect of PKI power within five years), a brief 'Communists smoothing path to power in Indo
FBIS-monitored Jakarta radio excerpts (9 Mar 1964) of Sukarno's speech to an International Women's Day gathering at the State Palace. He calls Malaysia a neocolonialist project to be 'crushed', cites Khrushchev, thanks Indonesian women for agreeing, and commands them to mobilise via radio and television, convince women
FBIS-monitored Xinhua excerpt (10 Mar 1964) on the four resolutions adopted at the International Women's Day rally in Jakarta addressed by Sukarno: crush 'Malaysia' and aid North Kalimantan; help implement agrarian and crop-sharing laws against food difficulties; resist imperialist cultural infiltration; condemn US agg
Two Divisions of DPRK Volunteers to Arrive (FBIS, 19 Apr 1964)
FBIS-monitored Jakarta radio report (19 Apr 1964) of a rally welcoming a North Korean Supreme People's Assembly delegation, with speeches by Sudibjo (National Front), Arudji Kartawinata and delegation chair Choe Won-taek, who said two divisions of Korean volunteers would join the anti-Malaysia campaign. The delegation'
FBIS-monitored KCNA report (21 Apr 1964) on the Jakarta welcome rally for the Korean Supreme People's Assembly delegation: speeches by Sudibjo, Arudji Kartawinata and Choe Won-taek on anti-imperialist solidarity, the Malaysia confrontation and new ambassador-level ties. On p.3 Mudiktio (Mudigdio), MP and deputy chair o
The Sino-Soviet Conflict in the Fronts, Sept 1962-Dec 1963 (CIA study, 12 June 1964)
CIA Directorate of Intelligence staff study (ESAU XXV, OCI 1855/64, 12 June 1964, by Helen-Louise Hunter) on the Sino-Soviet conflict in the international front organisations, September 1962 to December 1963. It covers AAPSO at Moshi, the Djakarta journalists' and writers' conferences, and Chinese attempts to build riv
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
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
Sukarno Speech Marks South Sulawesi Anniversary (FBIS, 10 Dec 1964)
FBIS-monitored Jakarta radio report (10 Dec 1964) of a Senayan rally marking the anniversary of Westerling's massacre of 40,000 in South Sulawesi. Sukarno attacked Malaysia and imperialism; Chaerul Saleh, Sudibjo and Parliament vice-speaker Mursalin also spoke. Mrs Salawati Daud, described as a South Sulawesi woman lea
CIA, The Indonesian Situation, report 61, 14 November 1965
CIA 'Indonesian Situation' report no. 61, 14 November 1965: continuing anti-communist action and mass killings, Aidit's presumed whereabouts, and 1,000 women demonstrating in Jakarta for permanent dissolution of the PKI women's auxiliary. Records an early anti-Gerwani mobilisation.
CIA intelligence memorandum, 6 October 1965: The upheaval in Indonesia
CIA intelligence memorandum, 6 October 1965, an early US assessment of the 30 September Movement; names Gerwani as reportedly involved and relays Suharto's 4 October claim that Pemuda Rakyat and Gerwani volunteers trained near Halim. Early US echo of the Lubang Buaya narrative.
US Embassy Airgram A-300 (Johnson Library copy): The September 30 Affair - background to the coup
Second, noisier OCR copy of the same US Embassy Djakarta airgram A-300 of 22 October 1965 (Masters), from the Johnson Library country file, 46 pages. Covers Sukarno-PKI offensive, the coup, PKI and Sukarno roles, army prospects. Gerwani is mentioned only as PKI women taunting the generals at Lubang Buaya (p.14) and as
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
FO 371/180312: Internal Political Situation, Attempted Coup against Sukarno [3] (1965)
UK Foreign Office file FO 371/180312 (1965), 'Internal political situation, Attempted coup against Sukarno [3]', a volume of Embassy letters and telegrams from Djakarta (Ambassador Gilchrist, S.J.G. Cambridge), February to April 1965. It includes Gilchrist's character notes on Subandrio, Aidit and the generals, the tak
FO 371/180317: Attempted Coup against Sukarno [8] (2-9 Oct 1965)
UK Foreign Office file FO 371/180317 (2-9 Oct 1965): Jakarta embassy and Foreign Office telegrams on the 30 September coup, Suharto's takeover, Sukarno and Omar Dani, Soviet press silence, and a Singapore proposal for unattributable propaganda to blacken the PKI. Gerwani is named in Suharto's 4 Oct statement and a 6 Oc
FO 371/180318: Attempted Coup against Sukarno [9] (Oct 1965)
UK Foreign Office file FO 371/180318 (Oct 1965): Djakarta embassy telegrams, minutes and copied US cables on the 30 September affair. Covers the anti-PKI demonstration and burning of PKI HQ, Sukarno's return, Suharto and Nasution, and Anglo-American debate on backing the generals. Only Gerwani-relevant item: the 10 Oct
FO 371/180320: Gilchrist Despatch of 8 October 1965 on the Coup and Counter-Coup
UK Foreign Office file FO 371/180320 (Oct-Nov 1965): Gilchrist's despatch no. 13 of 8 Oct 1965 on the coup and counter-coup, plus telegrams, NATO and Commonwealth reports and Chinese/Soviet/Hanoi reactions. The despatch lists GERWANI among 'chief suspects' (p. 11) and says members of PKI youth and women's groups took p
FO 371/180322: Attempted Coup against Sukarno [13] (28 Oct-5 Nov 1965)
UK Foreign Office file FO 371/180322 (28 Oct-5 Nov 1965): Djakarta telegrams quoting Antara on the post-coup purge, Sukarno versus the generals, Medan and Central Java. Gerwani items: tel. 2418 (2 Nov, p. 52) reports a Kowani/women's congress move to expel Gerwani members; tel. 2421 (p. 57) quotes Suharto naming 'Pemud
FO 371/180323: Attempted Coup against Sukarno [14] (Nov 1965)
UK Foreign Office file FO 371/180323 (c. 4-16 Nov 1965): Djakarta telegrams, Antara extracts and Foreign Office correspondence on the PKI's destruction, Subandrio, Nasution and Sukarno. Gerwani items: tel. 2480 (p. 39) reports a 8 Nov Jakarta rally of women's organisations demanding dissolution of the PKI and Gerwani;
FO 371/180324: Attempted Coup against Sukarno [15] (Nov 1965)
UK Foreign Office file FO 371/180324 (1965), 'Attempted coup against Sukarno [15]': telegrams and letters from Djakarta, Washington and Peking, November 1965, plus appended US and Canadian reports. It records Sukarno's Heroes Day speech, Adam Malik's view of the Sukarno-generals stalemate and accounts of 30 September.
FO 371/180325: Attempted Coup against Sukarno [16] (1965-1966)
UK Foreign Office file FO 371/180325 (1965), 'Attempted coup against Sukarno [16]': letters and telegrams from Djakarta, NATO Paris, Washington and The Hague, late November 1965 to January 1966. It follows the regional bans of the PKI, Sukarno's Nasakom speeches, Aidit's fate and translated interrogations of Untung and
FO 371/180326: Political Parties and Communism (Feb-Aug 1965)
UK Foreign Office file FO 371/180326 (Feb-Aug 1965): embassy telegrams, letters and Antara extracts on the PKI's growth before the coup: its 45th anniversary, Aidit's speeches, Mao's greeting, Sino-Soviet positions and Sukarno's leftward drift. Gerwani items: Antara of 9 June reports Sukarno addressing Gerwani, chaired
FO 371/180333: Bilateral Relations with China (1965)
UK Foreign Office file FO 371/180333 (Jan-Dec 1965): Peking, Djakarta and Hanoi telegrams on Sino-Indonesian relations: Subandrio's visit, delegations, PKI-China links, then the post-coup anti-Chinese wave, attacks on Chinese premises and Medan riots. Only Gerwani mention: Angkatan Bersendjata (29 Oct, p. 82) says the