Izvestiia, 11 Apr 1954: delegation of Soviet women in Indonesia
Izvestiia, 11 Apr 1954. TASS, citing Harian Rakyat: when a Soviet women's delegation led by A. Kholopova reached Surakarta (Solo), thousands of Gerwani members, students and housewives met it in a demonstration of friendship; the delegation received dozens of invitations in Surakarta and Yogyakarta.
Birth and Growth of the Indonesian Women's Movement, Part III (Sulami, 1959)
Part III of Sulami's 1959 history: KOWANI conflicts and 1948 Solo congress, founding of Gerwis at Semarang (4 June 1950), its 1954 renaming as Gerwani, structure with six commissions, membership growth (6,000 Java 1951; 642,460 in January 1957; 700,000 at the Third Congress, Solo, Dec 1957), 1955 election results (5 MP
Sovetskaya Kirgiziya, 3 Mar 1960: Khrushchev's visit to Indonesia
Sovetskaia Kirgiziia, 3 Mar 1960, p. 2: TASS coverage of Khrushchev's 12-day Indonesia visit: toasts with Sukarno, Khrushchev's farewell at Kemayoran, and crowds. On the last day Khrushchev received delegates of mass organisations including SOBSI, BTI, Pemuda Rakyat and Gerwani; Njono spoke. No Gerwani speaker is named
Biographic Data on Members of the Gotong Royong Parliament (US Embassy despatch, July 1960)
US State Department Central Files despatch from Embassy Djakarta (July 1960, chargé Rolland Buchner): biographic data, with alphabetical index, on about 110 former members of parliament appointed to the Gotong Royong parliament, grouped by party. Biographies of women MPs include Gerwani figures. Mrs Mudigdio (Gerwis/Ge
The Communist Party of Indonesia 1951-1961: A Decade of the Aidit Leadership (Hindley, 1961)
Donald Hindley's 1961 ANU PhD thesis on the Indonesian Communist Party under the Aidit leadership, 1951-1961, covering PKI strategy, party-building, finances, mass organisations and elections. Section 'Women' (pp. 422-448, esp. 'Gerwani', pp. 428-441) traces Gerwis from its founding on 4 June 1950 (about 500 members) t
Sukarno orders preparation to liberate West Irian; Gerwani congress closes (Renmin Ribao, 20 December 1961)
Renmin Ribao, 20 Dec 1961, p. 3 (Xinhua): leading item on Sukarno's 19 Dec Yogyakarta 'Order to the People' (Trikora). A Jakarta item reports Gerwani's Fourth Congress closing 17 Dec: West Irian resolution, UN telegram for PRC's seat, Aidit's greetings, Guo Jian's speech, a new Central Committee under Umi Sardjono, and
Sukarno orders preparation to liberate West Irian; Gerwani congress closes (Renmin Ribao, 20 December 1961)
Renmin Ribao, 20 Dec 1961, p. 3 (Xinhua): leading item on Sukarno's 19 Dec Yogyakarta 'Order to the People' (Trikora). A Jakarta item reports Gerwani's Fourth Congress closing 17 Dec: West Irian resolution, UN telegram for PRC's seat, Aidit's greetings, Guo Jian's speech, a new Central Committee under Umi Sardjono, and
Protest at US support for Dutch seizure of West Irian; Gerwani letter to Robert Kennedy (Renmin Ribao, 17 February 1962)
Renmin Ribao, 17 Feb 1962, p. 3 (Xinhua, Jakarta): during US Attorney General Robert Kennedy's visit, Indonesian student bodies, trade unions and Gerwani protest US support for Dutch 'self-determination' on West Irian; Gerwani delivered a protest letter to the US embassy. Students shout 'Recover West Irian' at Gadjah M
Protest at US support for Dutch seizure of West Irian; Gerwani letter to Robert Kennedy (Renmin Ribao, 17 February 1962)
Renmin Ribao, 17 Feb 1962, p. 3 (Xinhua, Jakarta): during US Attorney General Robert Kennedy's visit, Indonesian student bodies, trade unions and Gerwani protest US support for Dutch 'self-determination' on West Irian; Gerwani delivered a protest letter to the US embassy. Students shout 'Recover West Irian' at Gadjah M
Fujian puppet troupe tours Indonesia (snippet)
Snippet-only Renmin Ribao item (10 Oct 1963, p. 3): the Chinese Fujian puppet troupe leaves Jakarta for Yogyakarta, accompanied by a Gerwani Central Committee member (name uncertain), after two Jakarta performances. Full text is GA-01918.
Fujian puppet troupe tours Indonesia
Xinhua note in Renmin Ribao (10 Oct 1963, p. 3): the Fujian puppet troupe, after two Jakarta shows, flew to Yogyakarta, accompanied by a Gerwani Central Committee member (name uncertain). Planned tour: Solo, Malang, Surabaya, Semarang, Cirebon and Bandung. Shows Gerwani organising Chinese cultural tour across Java.
A Little about the Indonesian Women's Movement
Api Kartini (late 1964) history of the Indonesian women's movement for Youth Pledge Day, tracing Kartini, Isteri Sedar, Perwari, wartime Fujinkai and Gerwis's founding on 4 June 1950 from the Gerakan Wanita Sedar, its name change to Gerwani after merging with railway workers' wives and Perwin Menado, joining Kowani and
Soviet Woman, 31 May 1964: 'A New Realm', end of Soviet delegation's Indonesia visit report
Soviet Woman, 31 May 1964, p. (fragment): closing section of a Soviet Women's Committee delegation account of Indonesia (Mother's Day, Dec 1963), followed by an unrelated agricultural chemistry article. Delegates met Hurustiati Subandrio, Madame Supeni and 'Madame Umi Sarjono, Member of Parliament and President of Gerw
CIA, 'Sukarno and the Communists' (Office of Current Intelligence, 23 Oct 1964)
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
LBJ National Security File: Indonesia, Communists and Internal Politics (Oct-Nov 1965)
Compilation from the LBJ National Security File (ProQuest), Oct-Nov 1965: State Department memos, CIA intelligence memoranda and Indonesia Working Group situation reports on the 30 September Movement and army counter-moves. Gerwani appears only in passing: arrests of Gerwani and Pemuda Rakyat members (6 Oct), CIA claim
PKI Affiliates Including Gerwani Suspended (FBIS, 18-21 Oct 1965)
FBIS Daily Report pages (19 and 21 Oct 1965; HathiTrust scans) with the Jakarta war administrator's reporting order: from 19 to 24 October board members of PKI, Pemuda Rakjat, Gerwani, BTI, CGMI, Perhimi, IPPI, Lekra and HSI must report to police or military posts or face action. Also the bans on PKI and affiliates, Ge
Izvestiia, 4 Nov 1965: In Indonesia (Kowani expels Gerwani)
Izvestiia, 4 Nov 1965, p. 2, international commentary: Antara reports the Congress of Indonesian Women (Kowani) expelled the CPI's women's organisation Gerwani; also Supreme Court dismissals, 57 PKI deputies suspended (Lukman, Njoto), about 3,000 arrested near Yogyakarta, and books of 'implicated' authors removed from
The Crescent Arises over the Banyan Tree: Muhammadiyah in a Central Javanese Town (Nakamura, 1976)
Mitsuo Nakamura's 1976 Cornell PhD thesis, an ethnography and local history of the Muhammadiyah reform movement in Kotagede, Yogyakarta, arguing that Islamization of Java is an ongoing, internally generated process. Gerwani appears only in passing (p. 208), listed with Pemuda Rakyat and Lekra as PKI-influenced mass org
From politics to mysticism: S.K. Trimurti in her own words (Tempo, 21 Apr 1990)
Tempo profile (21 April 1990), in S.K. Trimurti's own first-person voice, of her life from teacher and Partindo cadre to labour minister and spiritualist. She says she co-founded Gerwis around 1950 (Ketua III, Yogyakarta), that Gerwis became Gerwani at its third congress under Umi Sardjono, and that in 1965 she quit Ge
She Who Earns: The Politics of Prostitution in Java (Sunindyo, 1993)
Saraswati Sunindyo's PhD dissertation (Sociology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1993) is a feminist study of prostitution in Java based on 1987-88 fieldwork in three brothel resorts (Samas, Bandungan, Tretes), with life stories and a history of state policy. Gerwani appears mainly in Chapter 2 (pp. 29-39): it outlin
The Women's Movement in Indonesia, with special reference to 'Aisyiyah (It, 2005)
Suraiya It's 2005 Temple University religion PhD dissertation on the Indonesian women's movement, with the Muhammadiyah women's section 'Aisyiyah as case study (Ch. 2 history from Kartini to the New Order; Ch. 3 religion and family law; Ch. 4-5 'Aisyiyah; Ch. 6 conclusion). Gerwani appears only in passing: Gerwis is li
Tempo, 1 October 2012: Gulag on the bank of the Lampir river (Plantungan camp)
Tempo report (1 Oct 2012) on the Plantungan camp (Kendal) for women Group B political prisoners, opened 1971 in a former leprosarium. Names Gerwani activists and others held there: Sumiyarsi Siwirini ('Lubang Buaya doctor'), Siti Suratih, Mia Bustam, Pujiati, C.H. Sumarmiyati, Mujiati. Covers conditions, 'santi aji' in
Tempo.co, 9 October 2015: The fall of the PKI, Suharto and the destruction of the women's movement
Tempo.co report (9 Oct 2015) on a Yogyakarta (UIN Sunan Kalijaga) discussion of Saskia Wieringa's book on the destruction of the women's movement. It summarises her argument that the military slandered Gerwani over Lubang Buaya as a pretext to kill; army press libel, and women forced to dance naked while soldiers photo
Tempo, 8 February 2016: Mintardjo and a fragment of Gerwis history
Tempo review (8 Feb 2016) of Elisabeth Ida Mulyani's video 'Supervivere' on 1965 exiles (Mintardjo and nine others in the Netherlands and Sweden), shown in Yogyakarta with a charcoal portrait 'Suti, Plight of Gerwani' by Dewi Candraningrum. It describes Suti, 95, founder of Gerwis Musuk/Boyolali in 1952, a literacy cam
Ummah Yet Proletariat: Islam and Marxism in the Netherlands East Indies and Indonesia, 1915-1959 (Lin, 2020)
PhD dissertation (History, University of Washington, 2020) by Hongxuan Lin tracing the confluence of Islam and Marxism in the Netherlands East Indies and Indonesia, 1915-1959, through vernacular print culture; it genealogises Sukarno's NASAKOM. Gerwani appears only briefly: citing Blackburn, it says millions joined for
Tempo, 2 October 2021: Breaking up before the decisive congress (how Umi Sardjono led Gerwani)
Tempo feature (2 Oct 2021) on how Umi Sardjono led Gerwani: Marx House courses, the 1945 Barisan Buruh Wanita with S.K. Trimurti, Gerwis founded at Semarang (3-6 June 1950, Tris Metty chair), Umi chair from 1954 when it became Gerwani. Cites 650,000 members and 179 kindergartens at the 1957 Solo congress, WIDF links, s
Tempo, 2 October 2021: Umi Sardjono and the stigma on Gerwani (why we rewrote the history of Gerwani and Umi Sardjono)
Tempo editor's note (2 Oct 2021, Moyang Kasih Dewi Merdeka and Seno Joko Suyono) on why the magazine rewrote Umi Sardjono's life. It describes her silence after release, trauma and fear of surveillance (Wieringa 1981, Pohlman 2005), her arrest at Senayan and Bukit Duri detention, the lack of memoir or traces, and sourc
Tempo English, 4 October 2021: End of the Road (Umi Sardjono)
English-edition Tempo cover story 'End of the Road' (4 Oct 2021, Retno Sulistyowati), a translation from the Umi Sardjono special report. It traces Umi's formation in Pathuk Youth, Pesindo, BBW with S.K. Trimurti, Madiun 1948 arrest, founding of Gerwis (Semarang, 3-6 Jun 1950), Gerwani growth from 80,000 to 650,000 (19
Tempo English, 4 October 2021: Umi Sardjono and allegations against Gerwani (editors' note)
English edition of the Tempo editors' note 'Umi Sardjono and Allegations Against Gerwani' (4 Oct 2021, Moyang Kasih Dewi Merdeka) introducing the special report. It describes Umi's silence, trauma and fear of surveillance (Wieringa 1981, Pohlman 2005), her arrest at Senayan and detention at Bukit Duri, the absence of m
Remembering through Fragmented Narratives: third generation and the 1965 violence (Leksana and Subekti, 2022)
Leksana and Subekti (2022) on how 1965 memory reaches third-generation members of three survivor families, arguing family silence is a survival strategy preserving memory via fragmented narratives, mysticism and depoliticisation; one case has Gerwani grandparents.