The Economist, 6 Nov 1965, p.594, 'Rings on a tree trunk', from a special correspondent in Jakarta: the army-inspired anti-communist campaign has gained its own momentum, with raids on PKI offices, arrests, 26 Antara correspondents detained, Aidit in hiding, Sukarno declaring Central Java in a 'state of war'. Wall graf
South China Sunday Post-Herald, 7 Nov 1965, p.30 (Reuter, Djakarta, 6 Nov): the Armed Forces bulletin says nine 'suicide squad' members of Gerwani, the Communist Women's Organisation, were killed by troops after standing in the path of army tanks in Solo, jeering and turning their backs when asked to leave. The item al
Sukarno will act against Reds (The Hindustan Times, 7 November 1965)
The Hindustan Times, 7 Nov 1965 (Reuter, Bogor, 6 Nov): Sukarno promises action against the PKI while the army hunts its members; Subandrio reports Sukarno scolding Njoto for the party's 'childish disease'. The armed forces bulletin says nine Gerwani 'suicide members' were killed by paratroopers when they blocked the r
Hamilton Spectator, 19 Nov 1965, p.6: Arthur Dommen (Los Angeles Times) on the 'Indonesian mystery' of the 30 September movement in central Java: Pemuda Rakjat raids on police posts at Boyolali and Klaten (22 Oct), army claims about 1,000 raiders killed, arms from China and guerrilla plans. The wartime-quality OCR name
Further Report on Confessions of Njono (FBIS, 2 Dec 1965)
FBIS item (ANTARA, 2 Dec 1965) reporting Njono's army-publicised interrogation: PKI Politburo allegedly planned the coup from July to August 1965 under Aidit. Gerwani is named among the organisations expected to support military operations and, with Pemuda Rakyat, BTI and SOBSI, in Njono's Jakarta force. Lubang Buaya i
The masses did not rise (The Hindustan Times, 8 December 1965)
The Hindustan Times, 8 Dec 1965, Dennis Bloodworth (Singapore), 'PKI Debacle I: The Masses Did Not Rise': analysis of why the PKI collapsed after the 1 Oct coup: overrated membership, reliance on Sukarno and on army and air force penetration, no general strike, SOBSI dissolving. It reports Untung's alleged claim that m
Army plans to kill P.K.I. for ever (The Scotsman, 8 December 1965)
The Scotsman, 8 Dec 1965, Dennis Bloodworth, 'Army plans to kill PKI for ever': Suharto and Nasution press to destroy the PKI while Sukarno refuses to ban it; the article analyses the PKI's miscalculations. It repeats the slander that six generals were mutilated by 'doe-eyed girls' of the PKI's 'Gerwani' women's moveme
Dossier of the Indonesian Drama (Lucien Rey, New Left Review, 1966)
Article by Lucien Rey (New Left Review no. 36, March 1966) reconstructing the 1 October 1965 events as a plot by dissident Central Java officers, plus a translated Asahi Shimbun interview with PKI deputy chair Njoto. Says People's Youth and Gerwani auxiliaries trained at Halim took part in the generals' executions in r
Toronto Daily Star, 20 Dec 1966: Indonesian Red's wife (arrest of Mrs Aidit)
Page 17 of the Toronto Daily Star (20 Dec 1966), a general world-news page. A short wire item headed 'Indonesian Red's wife' reports, citing the army paper Berita Yudha, the arrest of Mrs Aidit, a doctor and chairman of the Communist women's organization, accused of propaganda after the coup. The OCR is badly garbled;
Vancouver Sun, 20 Dec 1966: 'Family Captured' (wife and daughter of D.N. Aidit)
Reuters item on a Vancouver Sun 'Names in the News' page (20 December 1966): the wife and daughter of D.N. Aidit, former Indonesian Communist leader, 'have been captured' in Jakarta; Mrs Aidit, a doctor, is described as chairman of the Communist women's (movement, text cut off). The wife is Sutanti Aidit, presented as
Mrs. Aidit Reported Seized (New York Times, 21 Dec 1966)
New York Times headline item, 21 December 1966, p. 16: 'Mrs. Aidit Reported Seized'. Per the sweep log it reports the arrest of Dr Soetanti Aidit, wife of PKI chairman D.N. Aidit. Only the citation header was captured, not the article text.
The Rise and Fall of the Djakarta-Peking Axis, 1949-1966 (Ju, 1967)
PhD dissertation (Mississippi State, 1967) by Woo Jung Ju on Sino-Indonesian relations, 1949-1966, from Bandung to the collapse of the Jakarta-Peking axis. It follows the PKI's resurgence under Aidit, Guided Democracy, the Malaysia Confrontation and the planned second Afro-Asian Conference, largely from Western press a
Indonesianizing Marxism-Leninism: Communist Polycentrism 1919-1966 (Silverman, 1967)
PhD dissertation in political science (Claremont, 1967) by Jerry Mark Silverman on national communism and polycentrism, 1919-1966, using the 'political community' framework with the PKI as case study (Section III, chs. 4-5 on PKI independence and ambivalence). It confines its Indonesian analysis to the period before 1
Pye's Theory of Political Development through the Indonesian Coup of 1965 (Sloan, 1967)
PhD dissertation in politics (New York University, 1967) by Stephen Sloan testing Lucian Pye's theory of political development through a case study of the 1965 Indonesian coup; chapters cover Pye's theory, barriers to nationhood, Nasakom politics and the coup and its aftermath. The excerpt contains no mention of Gerwan
The United States and the 'New Order' in Indonesia (Sullivan, 1969)
John H. Sullivan's 1969 American University PhD in international relations traces US-Indonesian relations c. 1963-68 and the emergence of the New Order, covering the anti-American period, the 30 September Movement and its aftermath, and regional, communist-bloc and economic relations. It is diplomatic and political his
Interpretations of the 1965 Indonesian Coup: a review of the literature (van der Kroef, 1970)
Review essay by Justus M. van der Kroef (Pacific Affairs, winter 1970) surveying interpretations of the 1965 coup (Wertheim, Rey, the Cornell Report, Utrecht, Pluvier, Hughes, Nugroho/Saleh) from a pro-PKI-complicity standpoint. Several passages mention Gerwani members' role at Halim; he cites 'Mrs Djamilah's' confessi
Youth and the Wane of Soekarno's Government (Paget, 1970)
Roger Paget's 1970 Cornell PhD thesis on how student and youth action groups, culminating in KAMI, emerged after 1 October 1965 and helped undermine Sukarno. Gerwani appears in several passages: action fronts demanded its banning (p. 44) and its offices were ransacked (p. 63); Herlina denounced it for not fighting Mala
Social Conditions Leading to Military Dominance: the case of Indonesia (Kahane, 1974)
Journal article by Reuven Kahane (Contributions to Asian Studies, vol. 5, 1974) giving a structural-sociological explanation of the 1965 coup and army dominance in Indonesia: religious-class polarisation, failing Sukarno-era control mechanisms, and the army's rise. Gerwani appears only in a footnote listing PKI-affilia
The 1965 Coup in Indonesia: The CIA's Version (van der Kroef, 1976)
Critical review by Justus M. van der Kroef (Asian Affairs, Nov 1976) of the CIA's declassified 1968 report 'Indonesia-1965: The Coup That Backfired'. Takes issue with the CIA's claim that Lubang Buaya victims were not mutilated and that Gerwani/Pemuda Rakyat confessions were Army-contrived, quoting Gerwani member Djami
FBIS Daily Report, 8 Jul 1978: Wife of 1965 coup attempt leader to be tried (Mrs Tanty Aidit)
FBIS Daily Report item (8 Jul 1978) quoting Kuala Lumpur radio: Mrs Tanty (Sutanti) Aidit, a medical doctor and widow of PKI chairman D.N. Aidit, will soon be tried for complicity in the 1965 coup attempt, a Jakarta prosecution spokesman said. She has been in military detention since 1965. Gerwani is not mentioned.
The 30 September Movement: a political movement of the armed forces or an intelligence operation? (Holtzappel, 1979)
Journal article by Coen Holtzappel (Journal of Contemporary Asia, 1979) analysing the Untung and Njono trial records to argue the 30 September Movement was steered by Air Force and Army intelligence, with Sjam's Pringgodani group deliberately compromising the PKI and Aidit. Gerwani is mentioned only once, in a footnote
Released from detention (Sutanti Aidit), Tempo, 5 Jan 1980
Short Tempo item, 5 January 1980, on the release of Dr Soetanti Aidit, 57, widow of PKI chairman D.N. Aidit, from detention on 20 December 1979. Held from 1966 in Bukit Duri women's prison and never moved, she was separated from her five children for 13 years, declines to talk about the past and hopes to practise medic
Harian Rakjat, Daily Newspaper of the Communist Party of Indonesia (Groves, 1983)
Kerry Groves's ANU MA thesis (1983) on Harian Rakjat, the PKI daily: its stance on press freedom, administration, polemics (e.g. with Merdeka, 1964), content and treatment of leaders, drawing on Indonesian sources and interviews with ex-prisoners. Gerwani appears in Chapter VI (pp.142-149) on the paper's women's column
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
The Guardian (Weekend Guardian), 8 Sept 1990, p.A4, John Gittings, 'The black hole of Bali': long feature on the 1965 massacre (250,000 or more killed), how the killings were organised by the army under Suharto, the Aidit/PKI role, the US list of communists (Martens/Kadane) and US encouragement, survivors ('Tapols') an
The Forgotten Years: Mass Slaughter in Jombang-Kediri 1965-1966 (Sulistyo, 1997)
Hermawan Sulistyo's 1997 Arizona State history PhD, 'The Forgotten Years', studies the 1965-66 killings in Jombang-Kediri, East Java, from interviews and documents, finding no single national pattern and stressing local conflict and military-backed operations. Gerwani appears in passing: its claimed 1.75 million member
Tempo, 1 October 2007: Aidit's face on celluloid
Tempo feature (1 Oct 2007) on how D.N. Aidit was portrayed in the New Order film Pengkhianatan G-30-S/PKI, via interviews with Syu'bah Asa, Danarto, Amarzan Ismail Hamid and Jajang C. Noer. Notes thin research and an invented chain-smoking Aidit; context for film propaganda.
The Aidit family: after that night of horror (Tempo, 1 Oct 2007)
Tempo special (1 October 2007) on what happened to D.N. Aidit's family after 30 September 1965. It recounts the fates of his father, siblings and children, and of his wife Dr Soetanti Aidit, who fled, lived in disguise, was arrested, held in Kodim 66 and Bukit Duri until about 1980, and died in 1991. Her Gerwani member
The last night: after the headlights went out (Aidit's last night at home, Tempo, 2007)
Tempo piece (1 October 2007) reconstructing D.N. Aidit's last night at home, 30 September 1965, from his son Ilham and brother Murad. His wife Dr Soetanti Aidit angrily quarrels with him and urges him not to leave; he goes anyway. The article sets out the contested versions of where he went that night. Soetanti appears
Tempo, 1 October 2012: AM - 'We never buried them...' (Ansor member's testimony)
Tempo testimony (1 Oct 2012) of 'AM', 70, a former Ansor/Banser member who took part in night-time 'drop-dropan' killings of village-level PKI leaders in Badas and Pare (Jombang-Kediri), Oct-Nov 1965. He says he felt no pity and left bodies unburied, justifying his hatred by PKI land reform actions. Gerwani is not ment