Great success in Paris for Indonesians at WIDF exhibition events
De Waarheid report (24 Jul 1948) on a Perhimpunan Indonesia group of Indonesian workers and students performing dances and songs in Paris and Saint-Denis at WIDF invitation during its women's exhibition. An Indonesian woman greeted French women; the piece notes Kowani is a WIDF member. No Gerwis/Gerwani and no named In
CIA information report, April 1949: The WIDF in the Far East
CIA information report, April 1949 (catalogued 18 April): 'The WIDF in the Far East'. Lists delegates at the WIDF Council's first session (Paris, Feb 1947) and traces WIDF contacts in China, Malaya, Hong Kong and Singapore, a proposed 1948 fact-finding commission on women in India, Indonesia and elsewhere, and plans af
318 delegates could not come: World Peace Congress opens in Paris
De Waarheid report (20 Apr 1949) on the opening of the World Peace Congress in Paris, where Joliot-Curie greeted delegations from China, Spain, Greece, Vietnam and Indonesia, protested French refusal of 380 visas and noted women's role in peace. WIDF chair Cotton sat on the platform. No Indonesian delegate or Gerwis/Ge
Heavy battle in Sumatra; speeches at Paris World Peace Congress
De Waarheid page (25 Apr 1949) with a report on fighting in Sumatra (Dutch landing at Indrapura, Republican scorched-earth) plus speeches from the Paris World Peace Congress. WIDF chair Eugénie Cotton says millions of women are fighting in China, Greece, Indonesia and Spain. No Indonesian women are named.
Potentials of World Communism: Women's International Democratic Federation (OIR report, 1949)
OSS/State Department intelligence report (1 Aug 1949) on the Women's International Democratic Federation as a communist front: origins in the Soviet Anti-Fascist Committee of Women, 1945 Paris founding, leaders (Cotton, Popova, Ibarruri, Cai Chang), membership claims and Asia activities. Indonesia is mentioned only in
WIDF president Eugenie Cotton accused over anti-war poster
Short De Waarheid item (2 Jun 1950): WIDF president Eugénie Cotton, also head of the Union of French Women, was accused over a poster urging French mothers not to let under-age sons enlist for Vietnam; the paper compares it to Dutch women's action against the Indonesian war and calls for protest letters. No Indonesian
WIDF commemorative booklet (Berlin, 1955) for its tenth anniversary: history from the 1945 Paris founding congress, peace and anti-atom campaigns, the 1953 Copenhagen Congress, children's work, the 1955 Lausanne World Congress of Mothers. Page 28 states that in Indonesia 'the women's organization which had 6,000 member
Conversation between Zhou Enlai, Deng Yingchao and WIDF President Eugenie Cotton, 1955
Chinese-language transcript (scan, noisy OCR; English translation read) of a conversation between Zhou Enlai, Deng Yingchao and Eugenie Cotton, WIDF president, 22/23 May 1955 (Wilson Center Digital Archive). They discuss women's role in peace, the planned World Mothers' Congress in Paris, Franco-German reconciliation a
WIDF Council (Peking, 24-30 April 1956) 'Appeal to the Women of Asia and Africa', with a side item on a European girls' conference in Paris. The appeal salutes anticolonial struggles, welcomes the Bandung principles, and opposes the Baghdad and SEATO pacts and nuclear tests. Indonesia and Gerwani are not named.
WIDF at 15: Fighting for Family Happiness and World Peace
Api Kartini article (1960) by Maasje Siwi, an Api Kartini staff member who attended the WIDF Council in Warsaw (29 Nov-5 Dec 1960), marking the WIDF's 15th anniversary. Delegates from 61 countries heard Eugenie Cotton review WIDF history (1948 manifesto, 1953 Copenhagen congress, 1955 Lausanne mothers' congress, 1958 V
Sovetskaya Kirgiziya, 16 Mar 1965: world protest over the Vietnam war (Gerwani statement)
Sovetskaia Kirgiziia, 16 Mar 1965, p. 3: page of TASS items on Vietnam war protests. Quotes a Gerwani statement, said to speak for over 2 million members, condemning US bombing of the DRV as 'a crime against humanity'. Also reports Indonesia withdrawing from the New York World's Fair over US support for Malaysia. Other
Neue Zeit, 27 Nov 1965, p. 4: Strength lies in unity: twenty years of the Women's International Democratic Federation
Neue Zeit, 27 November 1965, p. 4 (women's page): 'Die Kraft liegt in der Einigkeit', a history of 20 years of the WIDF (IDFF). Indonesia appears once, in a list of imperialist armed aggressions (Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaya, Korea) against which the WIDF organised protests. The article also stresses the DFD's role and I
7th WIDF Congress, International Women's Year, Berlin 1975
Published proceedings of the 7th Congress of the Women's International Democratic Federation (WIDF), Berlin, 26 October 1975: opening and general-secretary addresses (Aruna Asaf Ali, Fanny Edelman), the report on WIDF work since the 1969 Helsinki congress, finance and credentials reports, the Prospective Plan to 1980 a
Hopes for a better world: the early years of the WIDF 1945-1950 (de Haan, 2009)
Francisca de Haan's article (German, Feministische Studien 2009) on the WIDF's early years 1945-50: founding congress in Paris, leaders Cotton, Ibarruri and Popova, and the destruction of the US affiliate by HUAC. Background on the federation Gerwani later joined.
The WIDF: History, Main Agenda, and Contributions, 1945-1991 (de Haan, c.2012)
Overview essay by Francisca de Haan (Women and Social Movements International database, c. 2012) on WIDF's origins, agenda, UN role and Cold War marginalisation, 1945-1991. Gerwani is listed once as a large, influential WIDF member organisation (with footnotes to Wieringa and to McGregor on Indonesian women and WIDF);