Jakarta sets up National Council: Sukarno names members (New York Times, 16 June 1957)
New York Times, 16 June 1957, p.37, Special to the Times from Jakarta: Sukarno names the 45 members of the new National Council (Dewan Nasional), chaired by himself, with Roeslan Abdulgani as deputy chairman and secretary-general. About a quarter are described as Communists or sympathisers, including PKI member Sujono
CIA Current Intelligence Weekly Summary, 12 November 1959
CIA Current Intelligence Weekly Summary, 12 Nov 1959, a long multi-topic report; the Indonesia part (pp.23-27) assesses PKI strength (Aidit's claim of 1.5 million members, Java as base, army and Sukarno restrictions, Aidit's 1959 Moscow and Peking trip). It names GERWANI as the PKI's women's front, alongside Pemuda Rak
Dilemmas of Indonesian Communism (van der Kroef, 1962)
Article by Justus M. van der Kroef (Pacific Affairs, summer 1962) on the PKI's dilemmas under Guided Democracy: dependence on Sukarno, the July 1960 'Evaluation' clash with the army, and the party's use of mass fronts. Gerwani is named as the PKI's women's front: its organ was aggressive without censure in 1961, and in
Secretary of Aidit drowns (Bintang Suradi), The Straits Times, 26 June 1963
Straits Times item of 26 June 1963 reporting that Bintang Suradi, 40, private secretary to PKI chairman D.N. Aidit, drowned off Java's south coast the previous Saturday, per Antara. Only the lead snippet was available. Relevant as the death of the husband of Gerwani figure Suwarti Bintang Suradi (the husband link comes
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
LBJ National Security File: Indonesia, Communist Parties and Internal Politics (Sept 1964-Feb 1965)
LBJ Library National Security File, Indonesia (Sept 1964-Feb 1965): White House/State memoranda, Djakarta cables and CIA OCI reports on Sukarno's leftward drift, 'Sukarnoism' anti-PKI movement, succession, Malaysia and the USIS library crisis. Includes the CIA 'Sukarno and the Communists' report, listing Women's Front
CIA Special Report SC 00642/64A, 23 October 1964: Sukarno and the Communists
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, '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
FO 371/180309: Periodic Reports on Indonesia's Internal Political Situation (1965)
UK Foreign Office file FO 371/180309 (1965), periodic reports on Indonesia's internal political situation, mostly weekly letters from the British Embassy in Djakarta (S.J.G. Cambridge, M.J.T. McCann) to D. Tonkin, January to July 1965, with Antara and press extracts. It covers Aidit and the arming of peasants, Chairul
Ruth McVey's classic history of the Indonesian communist movement from the ISDV and Sarekat Islam split to the failed 1926-27 uprisings, covering the PKI's early leadership (Semaun, Darsono, Tan Malaka, Musso), its Comintern ties and colonial repression; first published by Cornell in 1965, this copy is the 2006 Equinox
Fears of a New Surge of Red Terror in Indonesia (Evening Post, 11 October 1965), headline clipping
Headline-only clipping 'Fears of a New Surge of Red Terror in Indonesia' from the Evening Post of 11 Oct 1965; no further text.
Fears of a New Surge of Red Terror in Indonesia (Evening Post, 11 October 1965), opening clipping
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.
Fears of a New Surge of Red Terror in Indonesia (Evening Post, 11 October 1965), opening clipping (duplicate)
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.
Peking Review no. 18, 29 April 1966: 'white terror' in Indonesia, women and children killed
Peking Review Vol. 9 No. 18, 29 April 1966, a Chinese weekly. Besides Cultural Revolution and Afro-Asian Journalists' Association material, it carries Chinese protests against Indonesian anti-China outrages and a Renmin Ribao commentary, 'Right-Wing Reactionaries Plunge Indonesia into a Bloodbath' (p. 25), quoting New
Indonesian Communism since the 1965 Coup (van der Kroef, 1970)
Article by Justus M. van der Kroef (Pacific Affairs, spring 1970) on the PKI underground and army counter-campaign after 1965, from the Blitar and Purwodadi operations to political prisoners and Moscow/Beijing exile factions. Gerwani appears once (p.50): arrests of former Communists 'including members of Gerwani (the P
After 12 Years Freedom (Post-Courier, 19 January 1978)
Papua New Guinea Post-Courier, 19 January 1978, p. 5, feature by George Oliver on the release of 10,000 political prisoners held since the 1965 coup, with PKI members forced to swear loyalty. It describes the Category A, B, C system, the 1965-66 massacres (estimates up to half a million killed), Amnesty International's
After 12 Years Freedom (Post-Courier, 19 January 1978), clean OCR
Papua New Guinea Post-Courier, 19 January 1978, p. 5, clean OCR of George Oliver's feature on the release of 10,000 political prisoners held since the 1965 coup (same article as GA-00267). It covers the official and alternative accounts of 30 September, killings of perhaps half a million, half to three-quarters of a mi
Ties (Joop Morrien on ties between CPN and PKI)
De Waarheid profile (11 Nov 1985, p.15) of CPN's Joop Morriën, who spent eight months in Indonesia in 1954 (Java tour, Yogyakarta artists' colony, meetings with unionists and Gerwani members) and planned Dutch-language book publication. He recalls being treated as PKI representative on the Prague journal 'Problems of P
Losing a Revolution: The PKI versus the Army in Indonesia, 1949-1965 (Sutley, 1988)
Stewart K. Sutley's MA thesis (Political Science, McGill, 1988) applies Tilly and Aya's 'political conflict' model to the PKI-Army struggle of 1949-65, arguing the PKI's state-within-a-state depended on Sukarno and was destroyed after the army struck at the president. Gerwani is treated only as the PKI's 'women's front
The Banteng and the Eagle: Indonesian Foreign Policy and the United States during the Era of Sukarno, 1945-1967 (PhD, 20
PhD dissertation by Yohanes Sulaiman (Ohio State, 2008) on Indonesian foreign policy and the United States under Sukarno. Gerwani appears only in a footnote on the 1965 aftermath quoting John Hughes (1967, p. 150): Gerwani women in a village blocking Sarwo Edhie's column 'bared their posteriors' in insult and were shot
The Banteng and the Eagle: Indonesian Foreign Policy and the United States during the Era of Sukarno, 1945-1967 (PhD, 20
PhD dissertation by Yohanes Sulaiman (Ohio State, 2008) on Indonesian foreign policy and the United States under Sukarno. Gerwani appears only in a footnote on the 1965 aftermath quoting John Hughes (1967, p. 150): Gerwani women in a village blocking Sarwo Edhie's column 'bared their posteriors' in insult and were shot