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
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
FBIS monitored New China News Agency report (30 Nov 1949) on worldwide preparations for the Asian Women's Conference in Peking (opening 6 Dec). Notes Indonesian women's delegation to Peking, funded partly by women's groups in Italy, Belgium and Austria, and Dutch women protesting the colonial war. Context for WIDF-link
FBIS monitored Peking radio report (13 Dec 1949) on day three of the Asian Women's Conference: Teng Ying-chao's report, speeches by delegates including an unnamed (OCR garbled) Indonesian delegate who urged an all-national united front under the Indonesian Communist Party; Dutch, French, Indochinese, Soviet speakers. E
FBIS-monitored Xinhua text (15 Dec 1949) of a speech by Indonesian delegate 'Lillah' (Lily) Suripno at the Asian Women's Conference, Peking, 12 Dec. She thanks WIDF, surveys Indonesian anti-colonial history, the 1926-27 PKI revolts, Japanese occupation, women in guerrilla struggle, and calls for a PKI-led front of demo
FBIS note (13 Nov 1950): the Kowani executive reports that three WIDF delegates (Shen Chi-shu, Chen Ke, Chi Yun) would leave Peking on 16 Nov to attend the Kowani Congress, 24-26 Nov; Kowani is described as a WIDF member. Shows WIDF links with Indonesia's women's federation shortly after the Sept 1950 founding of Gerwi
CIA report, 30 April 1951, on 'Women Communists in Indonesia': Chinese and Indonesian women's links, the Stockholm peace appeal, and Gerwis chair 'Sri Mangunsarkoro' protesting France's ban on the WIDF. Early foreign surveillance of Gerwis's WIDF ties.
FBIS-monitored Moscow Radio text (25 Jan 1951) of a speech by an Indonesian member of the World Peace Council (name garbled), chairing the Indonesian delegation to the Warsaw Peace Congress. Describes the Indonesian Peace Committee (Yogyakarta, June 1950), the Stockholm Appeal signatures, and urges non-democratic Indon
One-line FBIS item (6 Apr 1952): the Movement of Awakened Indonesian Women (Gerwis) will send delegates to the International Conference for the Defense of Children in Vienna, 12-16 April. Evidence of Gerwis's international children's and WIDF-circle activity.
State Department intelligence report (27 May 1952) on Beijing's May 1952 festivals and the Asia-Pacific peace conference preparations as part of the communist 'peace' campaign. Mentions the WIDF only as a precedent for earlier Beijing meetings (Nov-Dec 1949); no reference to Indonesia, Gerwis or Gerwani found.
FBIS-monitored Xinhua report (31 May 1952) on a Peking meeting for International Children's Day welcoming delegates returning from the Vienna children's conference. Mme Suwarti of Indonesia described the miserable life of Indonesian people and children under American imperialist exploitation and praised New China's car
FBIS-monitored Xinhua report (4 Jun 1952) on day two of the Peking preparatory meeting for the Asia-Pacific Peace Conference. Suwarti of Indonesia chaired the late-morning session; Surjonegoro of Indonesia made a statement. Greetings read from the All-China Democratic Women's Federation and other Chinese bodies and fro
FBIS-monitored Xinhua report (11 Oct 1952) on a session of the Asian and Pacific Peace Conference in Peking: Dr Chen Wen-kuei's indictment of US bacteriological warfare, then speeches by delegates from India, New Zealand, Korea, Japan, Pakistan, Chile, Vietnam. Umi Sardjono, a woman delegate from Indonesia, said Indone
CIA report, 6 July 1953, on Gerwis commissars assigned to West Java areas (Djatinegara, Bogor, Sukabumi, Cianjur, Bandung), with background on Kartinah and Kartowijono and their ties to Perwari, peace and WIDF activity. Names regional Gerwis leaders.
US State Department Office of Intelligence Research report IR-6165, 'Communism in the Free World' (January 1953), a compilation of about 30 country studies of communist capabilities, held in the CIA reading room. The Indonesia study (IR-6165.3) covers PKI aims and tactics, labour, and front organisations. Section VI.A
FBIS-monitored Pyongyang radio text (4 Mar 1953) of a Korean Workers' Party Central Committee decision for International Women's Day: praises Korean women in the war, calls for wartime production and vigilance. One line lists the 'awakened democratic women of India, Indonesia' and others in the WIDF-led struggle (WIDF
FBIS item (20 Apr 1953): MP Tjugito (OCR) and Suharjo, secretary-general of SABDA, left Jakarta as SOBSI delegates to May Day in Peking. S.K. Trimurti left with the SOBSI delegation and would attend the women's congress in Copenhagen (World Congress of Women). Shows Trimurti's travel in the WIDF circuit.
FBIS item (4 May 1953): first group of Indonesia's delegation to the International Women's Congress in Copenhagen (from 5 June) left Jakarta by ship on 4 May: a SARBUPRI central committee woman (name garbled, Suranto), Maasje Siwi and Kartinah, both of Gerwis. Records named Gerwis delegates to the WIDF congress.
FBIS-monitored Xinhua item (4 Jul 1953): eighteen Chinese delegates to the World Congress of Women (Copenhagen), led by deputy leader Chang Yun, returned to Peking on 4 July with ten foreign women delegates invited to visit China, including Kartinah of Indonesia (Kartinah Kurdi, Gerwis). Shows the post-Copenhagen China
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
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.
FBIS-monitored Xinhua item (4 Apr 1954): at its congress (25 Mar-1 Apr, Jakarta) the Indonesian women's movement, Gerwani, pledged support for the Geneva Conference and demanded prohibition of weapons of mass destruction. Says Gerwani is the new name of the women's democratic federation (Gerwis), a permanent WIDF membe
CIA weekly 'Recent Communist Conciliatory Gestures...' (9 Aug 1954), a long chronology of Soviet-bloc exchanges. The only Gerwani item (p.24, 1 August 1954) says the Indonesian women's organisation GERWANI, labelled Communist-front, was reported planning to send ten women on a three-week tour of the USSR, reciprocating
FBIS-monitored Xinhua item (27 Sep 1954): the Indonesian delegation and Indonesian women's delegation were entertained in Peking by the Chinese People's Institute of Foreign Affairs and the All-China Democratic Women's Federation. Shih Liang hailed Chinese-Indonesian women's friendship; Madam Poedjoboentoro spoke for t
CIA intelligence survey of the PKI's history, structure and front organisations, May 1955, before the September 1955 elections. Section III.E (report pp. 49-50) profiles Gerwani: founded 1950 as Gerwis, renamed Gerwani at the March 1954 congress, 25,000+ members, S.K. Trimurti general chairman and Umi Sardjono chairman
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
Wilson Center Digital Archive catalogue page (text only, no transcript) for the 23 May 1955 conversation between Zhou Enlai, Deng Yingchao and WIDF president Eugenie Cotton, from Zhou Enlai Waijiao wenxuan (1990), pp. 140-148. The abstract notes Cotton's pleasure with her China visit, her call to unite women's federati
FBIS-monitored Xinhua report (7 Mar 1956): a Peking women's rally on the eve of International Women's Day sent greetings to WIDF; the All-China Democratic Women's Federation sent messages to women's groups across Asia and Africa. Includes a message to Wanita Indonesia (Indonesian Women's Congress and the Indonesian Wom
State Department intelligence report (17 July 1956) on the Soviet and Chinese communist campaign in Indonesia after the 1956 visits, with a chronology of Indonesia-China exchanges. Gerwani features only in the chronology: a May 1956 Gerwani protest against US H-bomb tests, plus Indonesian delegations to the WIDF meetin
CIA compilation 'WIDF: A Compilation of Available Basic Information' (Oct 1956). In its affiliate list it gives Gerwani (Gerakan Wanita Indonesia) claimed strength of 281,000 (Feb 1955) and 565,147 (Apr 1956), with president Umi Sardjono and vice-president Suharti Suwarto (p.20); the WIDF Council list shows Indonesian