Short item, Indische Courant voor Nederland, 23 Sep 1953, p. 3: the BTI congress votes 122 to 8 to merge with Rukun Tani Indonesia; dissenting board members are suspended. Gerwis is reported to have welcomed the BTI-RTI merger.
Tribune (Sydney), 14 Oct 1953, p. 6: three Australian delegates (Flo Davis, Joyce Egan, Fuchsia Lewin) describe the WIDF World Congress of Women, Copenhagen, June 1953 (1,187 women, 70 countries). They stress peace, equal pay and socialist-bloc childcare. Indonesia appears briefly: Indonesian women urge support for a K
Tribune (Sydney), 14 Oct 1953, p. 6: three Australian delegates (Flo Davis, Joyce Egan, Fuchsia Lewin) describe the WIDF World Congress of Women, Copenhagen, June 1953 (1,187 women, 70 countries). They stress peace, equal pay and socialist-bloc childcare. Indonesia appears briefly: Indonesian women urge support for a K
Het Nieuwsblad voor Sumatra (28 Oct 1953, p.2): at its 25 October conference the Jakarta women's organisation Gerwis resolved on 'Menteng 31' (supporting its return to youth but asking the government to rehouse the girls living there) and on a forced marriage of a 60-year-old man to a 14-year-old schoolgirl, expressing
De Waarheid, 18 Nov 1953, p. 5: short report that the West Java branches of Gerwis ended a two-day conference in Bandung, adopting a resolution demanding that the government draft a new marriage law quickly and set minimum labour conditions for women workers. Same item notes a SARBUPRI strike of about 200 workers at th
De Locomotief, 21 Nov 1953, Tegal reports: the local KOWANI representation was revived on 28 Aug under Mrs Sarwono, uniting ten women's organisations including Gerwis, Perwari-type groups, Muslimat, Aisjiah and Bhayangkari. It collected money and clothes for terror victims and planned to mark KOWANI's 25th anniversary
De Waarheid, 9 Dec 1953, p. 5: Malang dispatch on a Gerwis conference reviewing East Java work. In six months membership rose from 12,000 to 16,420 and branches from 37 to 49; literacy courses ran in 120 villages with 1,349 participants; 15 kindergartens (kleuterbewaarplaatsen) opened, holding almost 600 children daily
De Locomotief, 17 Dec 1953: about a hundred women from seven Semarang associations, led by Perwari and including Gerwis, ride 40 becaks to the Governor's Office to petition for a marriage law securing women's legal position and for a freeze on the 1952 regulation giving pensions to second-to-fourth wives. A Gedung Rakj
Soviet Woman, 31 Dec 1953, pp. 49-52: WIDF declaration for peaceful settlement and Eugenie Cotton's statement, then Marie-Claude Vaillant-Couturier's 'We are stronger than ever' on follow-up to the Copenhagen World Congress of Women. One sentence notes the Indonesian women's union GERWIS would hold its congress in Dece
Commemorative volume of the second Gerwis congress (Jakarta, 25–31 March 1954): greetings, foreign women's federations' telegrams, general report, resolutions, and the unanimous 30 March 1954 decision to rename Gerwis as Gerwani. Includes new statutes and a WIDF memorandum to the UN.
Special issue of Bintang Merah with documents of the PKI Fifth National Congress (Jakarta, 16–20 March 1954): congress report, greetings from sixteen foreign communist parties, and a 400,000-strong closing rally.
CIA report, 6 May 1954: Trimurti and Dr Thung Sin Nio collecting funds to finance the Gerwis (now Gerwani) congress in Jakarta, 25-31 March 1954, including from Chinese-Indonesian donors. Evidence on congress financing and cross-community support.
WIDF pamphlet 'I Want To Live' (Berlin, May 1954) campaigning to ban atomic weapons after the March 1954 Bikini H-bomb test, with Hiroshima testimonies, the Stockholm Appeal and WIDF appeals. Page 25 cites a resolution of 1 April 1954 in Jakarta by the National Congress of the 'Indonesian Women's Democratic Organisatio
Short 1954 item in WIDF's 'Women Write to Us From Everywhere' by Darmini, Assistant General Secretary of Gerwani. She reports the Gerwani congress as a success, with WIDF representative Monica Felton present and foreign delegates (Dutch, Australian, Soviet) touring the country, a first in Indonesian women's movement hi
Monica Felton (WIDF Vice-President) writes in 1954 on the Second Congress of Gerwani, which she attended: 349 delegates, 80,000 members, a meeting with President Sukarno, resolutions on West Irian, the 1955 elections, a nationwide marriage law, democratic rights and support for the government against armed gangs. She s
Short 1954 WIDF note 'Dutch-Indonesian Solidarity': Dutch women's movement raised funds for a delegate to attend the Gerwis national congress (March 25) and sold soap 'For peace and friendship between Indonesian and Dutch women'. Mrs. Umi of Gerwis's executive says the campaign strengthened solidarity and showed Dutch
De Waarheid, 27 Jan 1954, p. 5: correspondent's Jakarta feature ahead of Gerwis's second congress (opening 26 March 1954), describing its literacy courses, hygiene campaigns, defence of women under customary law, wage struggles (Sampurna cigarette factory Surabaya, Kaliklatak coffee estate) with SARBUPRI, and the mass
Aneta item in De Vrije Pers (13 Feb 1954): nine parties and ten organisations, including PKI, PNI, NU, SOBSI, BTI, Wanita Demokrat, Perwari and Gerwis, met under PNI's R. Kartasasmita and urged the government to dissolve the Greater Jakarta municipal council and form a representative one.
Tribune (Sydney), 10 Mar 1954, p. 6: short review of Australian women's peace and welfare activity in 1953 (200-woman deputation to Canberra, Peace and War convention, delegations to Copenhagen). Says Australian women's representatives will doubtless attend the Indonesian women's congress soon to be held in Indonesia.
De Waarheid, 10 Mar 1954, p. 5: photo caption only, stating that Indonesian women work in the cigarette industry, often have to struggle for better working conditions, and that the Gerwis congress is also of great significance for them. Accompanies the NVB's pre-congress coverage; no further text.
De Waarheid, 10 Mar 1954, p. 5: excerpt from Umi (Sardjono) describing how the NVB received Gerwis's invitation to its congress with joy, sending a delegation and running a friendship campaign and a soap-selling drive (soap printed with Dutch and Indonesian hands) to strengthen solidarity and support Indonesia's demand
De Waarheid, 10 Mar 1954, p. 5: excerpts from an article by Umi (Sardjono), Gerwis board member, in Harian Rakjat preparing Gerwis's second congress. She lists invitations to women's groups in the USSR, China, Netherlands, India and WIDF, and stresses plantation and factory women, mass dismissals driving women into pro
Het Nieuwsblad voor Sumatra (10 Mar 1954, p.2): in Binjai two committees were formed to organise May Day. The first unites SOBSI, Sarbupri, Gerwis, Pemuda Rakjat and similar groups under a SOBSI chair; the second comprises non-SOBSI organisations such as PGRI and Perbupri and regards itself a branch of the Medan commit
FBIS-monitored Jakarta radio item (11 Mar 1954): two delegates of the Soviet Anti-Fascist Women's Committee will attend the Second Gerwis Congress in Jakarta, 24-31 March, at the invitation of the Gerwis central committee; delegates from other Eastern-bloc countries will also attend. Evidence of Gerwis's socialist-bloc
De Nieuwsgier, 12 Mar 1954: a Solo conference against 'self-government' (the autonomy plan for Surakarta) adopts a campaign of regency mass meetings by 15 April, a central action and a delegation to national leaders. Attendees include the PNI, PKI, Pemuda Rakjat, Pemuda Puteri Indonesia, Gerwis and SOBSI.
Aneta item in De Vrije Pers (12 Mar 1954): an anti-Swapradja committee conference in Solo rejected any return of self-rule (Swapradja) and planned waves of mass meetings before 15 April. Participants included PNI, PKI, Pemuda Rakyat, Gerwis and SOBSI; also notes the Sunan of Solo's planned studies in Jakarta.
FBIS item (12 Mar 1954): the Gerwis congress committee invited women's organisations in Britain, the Netherlands, the USSR, India, China and Australia to the congress due 24-31 March; the People's Republic of China reportedly said it could not send a delegation.
Java-Bode, 18 March 1954, p. 2: short item on two rival committees for 1 May Labour Day in Binjai, East Sumatra: one uniting Sobsi, Sarbupri, Gerwis, Pemuda Rakjat and similar bodies, chaired by Sobsi, and a non-Sobsi committee of PPPRI, OBPI, Perbupri and PGRI.
De Waarheid, 19 Mar 1954, p. 3: Jakarta dispatch that the Soviet Anti-Fascist Women's Committee will send two delegates, Alexandra Cholopowa (Kholopova) and Katherina Ljowa, with an interpreter, to the Gerwis congress. Also notes Harian Rakjat printing a photo of the NVB's fundraising soap, showing Indonesian sympathy
De Waarheid, 24 Mar 1954, p. 5: editorial caption introducing a published story about a local victory against polygamy in West Java a few months earlier through united action. It says the issue is also on the agenda at the Gerwis congress that has just begun, attended by Rie Lips-Odinot. The story itself is not part of