De Vrije Pers item (14 Jan 1952) on a new West Irian liberation committee in (apparently) Surabaya/East Java, with posts split among Badan Perjuangan Irian, SOBSI, PKI, PNI, Indo-National Party and Murba; its organisation section includes Front Pemuda, Pemuda Kesatuan Indonesia and Gerwis. It also demands ending the Ro
Algemeen Indisch Dagblad (1952-01-18, p. 3): in Surabaya a Panitya Pembebasan Irian Barat is formed at the initiative of the Badan Perdjoangan Irian Timur Jawa with SOBSI, PKI, PNI, Murba and others; Gerwis sits in the organisation section with youth fronts. It seeks to end the RTC agreement and abolish the Union.
De Vrije Pers item (24 Mar 1952): the East Java Committee of Victims of the August Raids met in Surabaya with thirty residency delegates and PKI and Gerwis Surabaya branches; reports on detainees moved many to tears. A resolution urged speedy release, support for families, payment of civil servants' salaries and visiti
Java-Bode, 25 Mar 1952, p. 2: East Java conference of the Committee for Victims of the August Raid in Surabaya with PKI and Gerwis delegates; resolution demands release of Kediri detainees, support for families and visiting rights. Same text as the Indische Courant item of 29 Mar 1952.
Indische Courant voor Nederland, 29 Mar 1952, p. 3: East Java conference of the Committee for Victims of the August Raid, in Surabaya on 23 March, attended by PKI and Gerwis delegates; resolution urges release of Kediri detainees, support for their families and visiting rights. Also a Lombok famine-relief item.
Java-Bode, 11 Aug 1952, p. 2. Mostly a Surabaya court verdict over the 1950 'Koalas' boat theft; the Gerwani-relevant item is an Aneta note that the East Java Gerwis conference decided to send Mrs Tam, Sulami and Warmi to the Asian peace conference in Peking.
Short Aneta item, Indische Courant voor Nederland, 18 Aug 1952, p. 3: the East Java branch conference of Gerwis decides to send a delegation (Mrs Tam, Sulami, Warmi) to the Asian peace conference in Peking. Also notes Salatiga teacher-training funds and the Parindra congress.
Java-Bode, 27 Aug 1952, p. 2: Miss Sulami, secretary of the Surabaya committee for victims of the August raids, says something is wrong with the arrestees' release, blames the Sukiman-Wibisono policy and RTC, and says the raids were a general attack on the anti-imperialist people.
De Vrije Pers item (4 Sep 1952): Surabaya authorities refused permission for the 7 September demonstration for August-raid detainees; a delegation of Mrs. Tam, Mrs. Talia and Miss Sulami left for Jakarta to seek a presidential audience, and Tam and Sulami with Miss Warmi and Mr Fatkali were to go on to the "communist p
De Waarheid, 9 Dec 1952, p. 4: Jakarta dispatch on reactions to the Dutch arrest of Indonesians Sunito and Go Gien Tjwan in Amsterdam and action against PKI representatives Aidit and Njoto. The PKI Central Committee calls it arbitrary and urges reprisals; Gerwis also asked the government for counter-measures. A Dutch p
Short De Vrije Pers note (22 Oct 1954): a People's Security Congress committee for the East Java elections was set up on 18 Oct at a meeting of 25 organisations; seat-holders include Gerwani, Perbepsi, Sarbupri and others.
Short speech by Suwardiningsih of the PKI East Java committee at the Sixth Congress (1959), claiming only the second PKI congress to attend to work among women and asking what attracts women to the PKI: equal rights in voting, marriage and divorce.
Pravda, c. 27 October 1965 (No. 300), 'The Situation in Indonesia': two short TASS dispatches from Jakarta dated 26 October. They report Sukarno and Subandrio on the 30 September Movement and ongoing repression of the PKI. Gerwani is mentioned once, among organisations banned by military authorities in North Sulawesi a
Headline-only clipping 'Fears of a New Surge of Red Terror in Indonesia' from the Evening Post of 11 Oct 1965; no further text.
Opening clipping of the Evening Post article of 11 Oct 1965: mass arrests of Communists continued in Jakarta, with fears of a retaliatory terror campaign; unofficial estimates of 1,500 detained in a week and 2,000 captured in Java. Gerwani is not mentioned in this fragment.
Opening clipping of the Evening Post article of 11 Oct 1965: mass arrests of Communists continued in Jakarta, with fears of a retaliatory terror campaign; unofficial estimates of 1,500 detained in a week and 2,000 captured in Java. Gerwani is not mentioned in this fragment.
L'Impartial (La Chaux-de-Fonds), 22 Oct 1965, 'The purge continues in Indonesia' (UPI). Purges in army, public services, education and unions; the Tjakrabirawa guard is nearly cleansed. The military governor of Yogyakarta banned the PKI and affiliated organisations, including the youth front, the women's organisation G
US Consulate Surabaya 'Joint Sitrep 11', 4 November 1965: clean-up raids continue, Blitar a main concern, and Basuki Rachmat's East Java tour sealing off PKI areas. Regional military context of the repression; Gerwani not specifically named.
US Consulate Surabaya Joint Sitrep 17, 24-26 November 1965: the PKI 'being slaughtered by Ansor' across East Java, bodies in rivers, Ludruk actors killed and a 'Holy War' coloration. Graphic contemporary evidence of the East Java killings.
Standfirst clipping of the Evening Post article of 10 Dec 1965: the Indonesian Communists, 'almost overlords yesterday, almost outlaws today', miscalculated their moment, strength and strategy and the determination of the military and Muslims to wipe them out. Gerwani is not named in this fragment.
Closing clipping of the Evening Post article of 10 Dec 1965: Nasution's escape over his garden wall and the murder of his five-year-old daughter; alleged PKI plans for arson and famine; the party's 'patriotic' image destroyed; Sukarno forced to appoint Suharto army chief while the Army mops up Communists in Central and
RAND memorandum RM-5753-PR (Feb 1969), Guy J. Pauker, 'The Rise and Fall of the Communist Party of Indonesia'. Argues, from trial records, that Aidit planned the 30 September action against the generals and traces PKI strategy, the Chinese turn, the agrarian 'unilateral actions' and the killings (up to 300,000), and th
TAPOL Bulletin no. 15, April 1976. Editorial links East Timor killings to the 1965-66 massacres; the issue devotes pages to a mimeographed East Java massacre report and to translated fictional accounts (Gestapu: Indonesian Short Stories, ed. Harry Aveling). Gerwani appears incidentally: victims included members of the
TAPOL Bulletin no. 21, April 1977 (London). Covers the ICRC mission to seven Indonesian detention sites, Carter and human rights, East Timor testimony, Kopkamtib detention legality, official denials and the May elections. It prints a smuggled letter from a Salemba tapol to the Red Cross describing starvation, beri-beri
TAPOL Bulletin no. 54 (London, Nov 1982), 24 pages, mostly on West Papua, East Timor, Borobudur and military law. Its 'Spotlight on Two Tapols' profiles Napsiah, a veteran of Pesindo/Perwari who joined the PKI in 1949, helped build Gerwani in East Java and sat on the PKI East Java committee. Arrested in 1968 after the
De Waarheid piece (2 Sep 1989, p.16) criticising Suharto's silence on the 1965-66 massacres, quoting Stanley Karnow and C.L. Sulzberger on the killings and estimates of 300,000 to one million dead. It notes mass arrests without trial of hundreds of thousands, including members of SOBSI, Gerwani and Pemuda Rakjat, and t
TAPOL Bulletin no. 101 (London, Oct 1990), covering West Papuan border raids, Suharto's 'de-Suharto-ization', new litsus screening rules, Petisi 50 and East Timor at the UN. A page on US embassy collusion reproduces Kathy Kadane's May 1990 interview with ex-deputy chief Jack Lydman about embassy-compiled PKI name lists
Vannessa Hearman's 2013 article on memories 'under duress', from interviews with over thirty ex-prisoners: screening and stigma forced concealment, name changes and silence; Gerwani appears via 'Leila' and 'Tuti' and Sukarno-era WIDF internationalism. Oral history methodology.