Het Parool report (18 Jan 1950, p.168) on a press conference in Amsterdam by Eslanda Robeson, with Rie Lips-Odinot, Mrs L. Suripno who represented Indonesian women in Beijing, and Annie van Ommeren-Averink, after the December 1949 Asian Women's conference in Beijing and a Moscow meeting of women from 36 countries. They
Algemeen Indisch Dagblad (1950-08-14, p. 1): SOBSI, Rukun Tani Indonesia, the Front Nasional Pemuda and the women's organisation Gerwis, among others, form their own committee to commemorate 17 August 1950 because the government excluded organisations. They call the day one of mourning for a 'unitary state à la RTC' an
De Locomotief, 10 Oct 1950: report on the installation of the Semarang regency council by Resident Milono, listing about 40 members from many parties and bodies. Mrs Sri Utari is named as the Gerwis representative; Mrs Sukandar and Suwarti represent GPII's women's wing. Records Gerwis's presence in local government in
De Nieuwsgier, 17 July 1953 (PIA): a delegation from the PPDI, Partai Buruh, PNI, PKI, PRIM, Gerwis and Permai, whose parties held a large Bandung demonstration, presents Sukarno with an open letter asking him to decree Darul Islam and other bands terrorists to be exterminated. Sukarno agrees personally but says cabine
De Locomotief, 27 July 1953: a Palembang delegation (PIR, PNI, PKI) flies to Jakarta with a statement signed by six parties and 22 organisations including SOBSI, BTI, Pemuda Rakjat and Gerwis. It demands early elections, anti-corruption action, settlement of the Tanjung Morawa affair and a democratic cabinet without Ma
De Nieuwsgier, 27 July 1953: Palembang delegation (PIR, PNI, PKI) flies to Jakarta with a joint statement by six parties and 22 organisations including SOBSI, BTI, Pemuda Rakjat and Gerwis. It says a PNI-Masjumi cabinet is no longer possible, urges a democratic parliamentary cabinet under Wongsonegoro, action against D
De Locomotief, 29 July 1953: Salatiga branches of SOBSI, BTI, PPDI, Pemuda Rakjat and Gerwis jointly convene a meeting of 35 organisations and parties, which forms a national action committee and decides to send an open letter to Sukarno urging implementation of parliament's decisions and action against Darul Islam and
De Vrije Pers fragment (17 Sep 1953) on trade-union reactions to the Sarbupri plantation workers' strike. It notes that the BTI's second congress, attended by SOBSI, Pemuda Rakyat and Gerwis representatives, declared solidarity with the strike and instructed its branches to support strikers.
Algemeen Indisch Dagblad (1954-03-12, p. 2): the anti-Swapradja Surakarta committee, whose conference included Gerwis among PNI, PKI, Partai Buruh, SOBSI and youth groups, resolves to reject any return of self-government and to hold regency rallies by 15 April. The government says swapradja must be gradually adapted an
Morning Bulletin (Rockhampton), 1 June 1954, p. 9, report of Allison Dickie, Victorian president of the Union of Australian Women, on her return from an Indonesian women's conference in Jakarta (360 delegates for 60,000 women; Dutch WIDF delegates present). She describes sex equality in the provisional constitution but
Simone Bertrand, WIDF Assistant General Secretary, reports in 1955 on the Fifth WIDF Council meeting in Geneva (45 countries). She cites GERWANI as a remarkable example: mostly peasant and plantation women, membership up from 80,000 to 281,000 in a year, and with nine organisations it formed a committee opposing a US b
Short Algemeen Indisch Dagblad item 'Betere wegen' (1956-01-03, p. 2): at the Wanita Demokrat's instigation, the village of Tjoblong in North Bandung sets up a road-improvement committee led by lurah Ateng Sutisna. Members include PSII, PKI, Wanita Demokrat, Gerwani, Permai, PNI, NU and the local guard; first project i
Moscow News (English), 30 May 1956, p. 5. Among general items (Afghan independence day, Anglo-Soviet and trade comment), a short piece reports a delegation of Indonesian women arriving in Moscow at the invitation of the Central Council of Trade Unions, led by Setiati Surasto, secretary of the plantation workers' union,
Suara Tani (BTI organ), Feb 1960 (vol. XI no. 2), OCR noisy. Covers BTI protest over price rises, sugar-cane land rents, Khrushchev's coming visit and the Bandung peace conference. On p. 3 an article welcomes the WIDF Bureau session in Jakarta (late Jan 1960), stressing peasant women's backwardness, citing Sri Darnings
Tribune (Sydney), 23 May 1962, p. 9: Laurie Aarons, Communist Party of Australia fraternal delegate, praises the Seventh Congress of the PKI as a mass party (383 delegates, 'two million' members) led by D.N. Aidit, with Sukarno speaking at the closing rally. Lists the mass organisations it leads: BTI, SOBSI and Gerwani
Tribune (Sydney), 23 May 1962, p. 9: Laurie Aarons, Communist Party of Australia fraternal delegate, praises the Seventh Congress of the PKI as a mass party (383 delegates, 'two million' members) led by D.N. Aidit, with Sukarno speaking at the closing rally. Lists the mass organisations it leads: BTI, SOBSI and Gerwani
Xinhua report in Renmin Ribao (9 Mar 1964, p. 4) on D.N. Aidit's International Women's Day letter, via the PKI Press Bureau. He urges urban revolutionary women cadres to go to villages and unite with poor-peasant women to enforce the Basic Agrarian and Crop-Sharing Laws, argues that women cannot be emancipated without
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
Tribune (Sydney), 2 Sep 1964, p. 9: Enid Hampson reports on the 10th Congress of Indonesian women's organisations (WANITA, 40 organisations) in Jakarta, 24 July 1964, opened before 9,000 women; Mrs Subandrio gave the main report. Sukarno urged women to a bigger role, food and Malaysia were main themes; also land reform
Tribune (Sydney), 2 Sep 1964, p. 9: Enid Hampson reports on the 10th Congress of Indonesian women's organisations (WANITA, 40 organisations) in Jakarta, 24 July 1964, opened before 9,000 women; Mrs Subandrio gave the main report. Sukarno urged women to a bigger role, food and Malaysia were main themes; also land reform
CIA Office of Current Intelligence Special Report SC 00642/64A, 'Sukarno and the Communists' (23 Oct 1964, Secret; declassified 1975). Analyses Sukarno's mutual exploitation with the PKI and Aidit's strategy; lists PKI front membership claims, including Gerwani at almost two million, beside BTI, SOBSI, Pemuda Rakjat an
CIA Office of Current Intelligence report 'Sukarno and the Communists' (23 Oct 1964, ten pages), pre-coup assessment of the PKI-Sukarno relationship. Describes PKI growth to a claimed three million members and its fronts, including the Women's Front (GERWANI), 'almost two million'; also the cabinet, National Front, lan
MA thesis (McGill, 2000) by Ro'fah on 'Aisyiyah, the women's wing of Muhammadiyah, from 1917 to 1998, covering the Old Order and New Order. Gerwani is treated as a rival within KOWANI in Ch. 2 (pp. 59-62): Gerwis founded 4 June 1950 and renamed Gerwani in 1954, its mass base among peasant women, literacy classes, marri
Pohlman (2017) chapter on how women whose husbands were killed or detained in 1965-66 secured daily survival for decades under ET stamps and boycotts, with case studies including Ibu Arum, a plantation labourer. Women's post-violence survival.
Francisca de Haan's 2018 chapter proposing a 'global left-feminist 1960s' led by the WIDF network, from the 1953 Copenhagen Congress (whose declaration reached Indonesia) to the 1963 Moscow congress. Frames WIDF transnationalism relevant to Gerwani.