With the Gerwis congress in sight: Jakarta feature on preparations
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
The lives of Indonesian women (Asahi Shimbun, 12 October 1955)
Asahi Shimbun (Tokyo evening edition, 12 Oct 1955, p. 2) article on the lives of Indonesian women, apparently built around Herawati Diah's visit. OCR is largely scrambled; legible fragments include Jakarta, women's organisations, subsidy, Paris and school. Gerwani is not identifiable.
Jenab's Hope (National Seminar on Peasant Women, 1961)
Api Kartini (1961) human-interest profile of Jenab, a poor peasant woman from Pabuaran village, West Java, who attended the DPP Gerwani National Seminar on Peasant Women in Jakarta with her baby. Describes her family's poverty (8 of 12 children died) and her hopes for implementing the sharecropping and agrarian laws; n
Gone to the farmer: communists in the Indonesian countryside
Friese Koerier travel/feature piece (12 Mar 1964, p.11) on how Indonesian communists won rural support via relief after Darul Islam raids, farming advice, theatre, wayang and badminton. It states the communists founded nominally non-communist organisations: BTI, Gerwani ('the Indonesian women's movement') and Pemuda Ra
Neues Deutschland, 10 Jan 1965, p. 5: Light and shadow (Indonesia report by Lieselotte Thoms, part IV)
Neues Deutschland, 10 January 1965, p. 5. Part IV of Lieselotte Thoms's Indonesia travel report 'Licht und Schatten'. After sections on literacy, universities and inflation, 'Frauenprobleme' describes meetings with Mrs (Dr) Subandrio, head of the Indonesian Women's Congress, and notes the movement is organised by party
Six million women volunteers ready: International Women's Day feature on Indonesia
Xinhua feature in Renmin Ribao (9 Mar 1965, p. 4) for International Women's Day on Indonesia's 'six million' women volunteers, enrolled since Sukarno's March 1964 call: military training, takeovers of US Information Service offices and US plantations, street protests. Mrs Arudji Kartawinata and Kartini Radjasa are quot
Neue Zeit, 24 Sep 1965, p. 4: Independent and equal (stalks of rice as a symbol of happiness)
Neue Zeit, 24 September 1965, p. 4 (women's page): ADN reportage "Halme des Reises als Symbol des Glücks – Selbständig und gleichberechtigt" by ADN Jakarta correspondent Helga Pe[...] on Indonesian women's life. It claims women drive cars, work as police and journalists, make up almost half of students and that the dep
Freiburger Nachrichten, 11 October 1965: Weekend politics column (Indonesia)
Freiburger Nachrichten (Fribourg), 11 Oct 1965, weekend politics column. Indonesia items: demonstrations in Malang demanding punishment of coup instigators, Radio Jakarta losing primacy, and the Muslim daily Mimbar Revolusi's report that homes of Aidit and Njoto were plundered and the Gerwani headquarters devastated, w
Armed Forces Information Centre, Intisari Berita, 28 November 1965 (weekly edition): 1 October attributed to PKI mass...
Armed Forces Information Centre bulletin, 28 November 1965 (edisi mingguan). Lead 'Militer' feature attributes 1 October to the PKI and to its mass organisations, 'especially Pemuda Rakyat and Gerwani', as perpetrators, and insists on crushing Gestapu 'to the roots'.
Straits Times, 8 Dec 1965: almost overlords yesterday, almost outlaws today (Dennis Bloodworth)
Straits Times, 8 Dec 1965, by Dennis Bloodworth (lead only). Analysis of how Indonesian Communists, implicated in the 'ruthless but abortive' 1 October coup, miscalculated their moment, strength and strategy, and the army's savage determination. Matched on Gerwani and PKI; lead does not name Gerwani.
Angkatan Bersendjata Minggu, August 1968 (Sunday Edition)
Angkatan Bersendjata Minggu, Agustus 1968 (edisi Minggu). Sunday edition, Independence Day issue: mostly entertainment; the single Gerwani item is a boxed city-column feature on a young jamu seller from Semarang, joking about Gerwani.
Megalomania: retrospective on Sukarno after his death
De Tijd retrospective on Sukarno's megalomania (22 Jun 1970, after his death): his second marriage to Hartini in 1954 provoked opposition from the monogamy-minded women's movement, then the 1965 coup, Suharto's rise, the March 1966 transfer of powers and the PKI ban. Gerwani is not named.
Megalomania: retrospective on Sukarno after his death (second copy)
De Tijd retrospective on Sukarno's megalomania (22 Jun 1970, after his death): his second marriage to Hartini in 1954 provoked opposition from the monogamy-minded women's movement, then the 1965 coup, Suharto's rise, the March 1966 transfer of powers and the PKI ban. Gerwani is not named. Duplicate of GA-00735.
Neues Deutschland, 7 Mar 1972, p. 6: Indonesia's family-planning problems
Neues Deutschland, 7 March 1972, p. 6: report 'Indonesiens Probleme der Familienplanung' by Jakarta correspondent Frieder Reinhold on population growth (125 million) and the 1971–76 family-planning plan. It notes that nearly half of women aged 10–14 in the (unrecovered) area surveyed have married and that twenty-year-o
Tempo, 6 October 1984: Stories of October 1965
Long Tempo feature (6 Oct 1984), New Order-era 'scattered stories' of 30 Sept-1 Oct 1965 told by witnesses: Catherine Panjaitan, Dewi Sukarno, Bambang Wijanarko, Mangil, Roeslan Abdulgani, Sugandhi, Salim Said, Syu'bah Asa. Frames events as a PKI coup and describes army/RRI takeover. Gerwani is not mentioned.
Newspapers then and now (National Press Day, PWI), Berita Harian, 24 Feb 1987
Berita Harian feature of 24 Feb 1987 by I.A. Makmur Makka on the press then and now, tied to Indonesia's National Press Day and the PWI anniversary at Hotel Indonesia. Only the lead snippet was retrieved; it does not name S.K. Trimurti, and the sweep's Trimurti match is unverified. Little direct Gerwani relevance.
Pravda, 30 Oct 1990: 'Indonesia: strokes to a tragedy of 35 years ago' (V. Shurygin)
Pravda, 30 October 1990 (No. 303), p. 5: V. Shurygin's retrospective 'Indonesia: strokes to a tragedy of 35 years ago' on the 1965 coup, Suharto's rise and the destruction of the PKI by a Pravda correspondent who was in Indonesia. Gerwani appears once, listed as the PKI's women's organisation alongside SOBSI, BTI, Pemu
Pravda, 1990: Shurygin, 'Indonesia: strokes to a tragedy of 35 years ago' (excerpt)
Pravda (Nov/Dec 1990, No. 303) archive.org OCR excerpt of V. Shurygin's retrospective 'Indonesia: strokes to a tragedy of 35 years ago'. Lists Gerwani among PKI-affiliated mass organisations, cites up to 500,000 killed, notes slander turned opinion against communists, and says ~50,000 of 1.4 million ex-prisoners may vo
Lesbian women in the Third World: persecuted and recognised
Het Vrije Volk interview feature (9 Jul 1990, p.10) by Canis Zijlmans on anthropologist Saskia Wieringa's research on lesbian women in the Third World. One passage mentions her research in Indonesia on the 'three-million-member' communist women's organisation Gerwani, wiped out after Suharto's takeover, and lesbian lif
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
Pravda, 30 Oct 1990, p. 5: Shurygin, 'Indonesia: strokes to a tragedy of 35 years ago' (full page)
Pravda, 30 Oct 1990, p. 5: full page with V. Shurygin's (Pravda-TASS) article 'Indonesia: strokes to a tragedy of 35 years ago', a Soviet correspondent's retrospective on the 1965 coup, Sukarno's choice at Halim, up to 500,000 communists killed, and slander-driven anti-communist propaganda. Gerwani appears once, listed
The trauma of 1965 itches and nags
Jan Bezemer's long Trouw weekend feature (30 Sep 1995) on the unresolved 1965 trauma. Covers the 30 September events, Suharto's role, US encouragement, massacres (Gatot's trial testimony) and the smear campaign against Gerwani. Draws on Saskia Wieringa's doctoral research: Gerwani was blamed for mutilating the generals
Suharto's fear of the voice of Gerwani (on Saskia Wieringa's research)
De Vrijdag (Het Parool, 6 Oct 1995) article by Hanneke de Wit on Saskia Wieringa's Amsterdam PhD on the Indonesian women's movement. It recounts the 1965 press claims that Gerwani girls castrated and blinded generals and danced naked, which Wieringa calls lies; autopsies showed the generals intact. It details forced 'c
Berita Yudha, 28 September 1997: Pancasila Sakti Monument, Lubang Buaya
Berita Yudha, 28 Sept 1997, p. 12: tourism feature on the Lubang Buaya monument stating that in the 'torture house' four officers 'were cruelly tortured by Gerwani until they breathed their last'.
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
Frau L's fight for justice: 80-year-old Lestari wishes that no one fears her any more (Keller, 2012)
Anett Keller's 2012 reportage (südostasien, German) on Lestari, an 80-year-old Gerwani co-founder in a Jakarta house of ex-prisoners: Gerwani's literacy and kindergarten work, her husband a PKI East Java leader, flight, arrest in Malang, 1979 release and life as an 'ET' domestic worker. Life-history portrait.
Tale of two Lekra writers: S. Rukiah Kertapati (Tempo, 1 May 2021)
Tempo feature, 1 May 2021, by Moyang Kasih Dewi Merdeka and Hardian Putra Pratama, on the forgotten Lekra writer S. Rukiah Kertapati: poet and novelist, Lekra leadership member from the 1959 congress, wife of BTI leader Sidik Kertapati. Soldiers took her from Purwakarta (article dates the arrest 1969; she was held at C
Mysterious poet and supporter of children's literature: Sugiarti Siswadi (Tempo, 1 May 2021)
Tempo article, 1 May 2021, by Isma Savitri and Hardian Putra Pratama, on Lekra writer Sugiarti Siswadi: Lekra central leadership member from 1959, children's-literature advocate, author of the banned Sorga Dibumi, and editor of Api Kartini. Researchers cannot trace her life; one suspects she was jailed in Semarang in 1
Mia Bustam's paintings and embroidery (Tempo, 20 Aug 2022)
Tempo feature (20 Aug 2022) by Seno Joko Suyono and Nurdin Kalim on the paintings and embroidery of Mia Bustam, former wife of the painter S. Sudjojono. Her children recall her Lekra activity, the loss of a self-portrait when the Lekra secretariat was raided in 1965, and works made in Wirogunan prison (1966-71) and at