WIDF Bulletin, 1947: French Friends of Peace conference, plus an 'Indonesia' item quoting a letter from the Secretariat of the Indonesian Women's Congress on the Dutch colonial war. It says all women's organisations back the Republic, women take part in the fighting, thanks Dutch women's groups for protesting, and asks
De Waarheid report (9 Jul 1948) on the WIDF international women's exhibition in Paris (12 Jun-18 Jul, 42 countries). The Dutch Women's Movement stand had a section on Indonesia, opposing colonial war; the article contrasts Western capitalism with Eastern Europe, China and the USSR. No Indonesian women's group is named.
De Waarheid report (24 Jul 1948) on a Perhimpunan Indonesia group of Indonesian workers and students performing dances and songs in Paris and Saint-Denis at WIDF invitation during its women's exhibition. An Indonesian woman greeted French women; the piece notes Kowani is a WIDF member. No Gerwis/Gerwani and no named In
Official WIDF account of its Second Women's International Congress, Budapest, 1-6 December 1948 (390 delegates, 51 nations), with preface by Irene Joliot-Curie. It frames women's rights, child welfare and peace against Cold War blocs. Gerwani is not named. Indonesia appears only as a colonial struggle: appeals to end D
De Waarheid report (6 Jan 1949) on international protests against the Dutch "Christmas" military action in Indonesia: the WFTU statement, and the WIDF telegram and letter to the Security Council on behalf of 80 million women including its Indonesian and Dutch affiliates. Also covers Security Council scheduling and Mini
De Waarheid report (20 Apr 1949) on the opening of the World Peace Congress in Paris, where Joliot-Curie greeted delegations from China, Spain, Greece, Vietnam and Indonesia, protested French refusal of 380 visas and noted women's role in peace. WIDF chair Cotton sat on the platform. No Indonesian delegate or Gerwis/Ge
De Waarheid page (25 Apr 1949) with a report on fighting in Sumatra (Dutch landing at Indrapura, Republican scorched-earth) plus speeches from the Paris World Peace Congress. WIDF chair Eugénie Cotton says millions of women are fighting in China, Greece, Indonesia and Spain. No Indonesian women are named.
OSS/State Department intelligence report (1 Aug 1949) on the Women's International Democratic Federation as a communist front: origins in the Soviet Anti-Fascist Committee of Women, 1945 Paris founding, leaders (Cotton, Popova, Ibarruri, Cai Chang), membership claims and Asia activities. Indonesia is mentioned only in
Short De Waarheid item (2 Jun 1950): WIDF president Eugénie Cotton, also head of the Union of French Women, was accused over a poster urging French mothers not to let under-age sons enlist for Vietnam; the paper compares it to Dutch women's action against the Indonesian war and calls for protest letters. No Indonesian
De Waarheid retrospective (14 Dec 1950) on five years of the WIDF, founded in Paris in Dec 1945, describing its heroines and growth to 91 million members in 59 countries, the 1946 founding of the Dutch Women's Movement, the 1949 Asian women's conference in Peking and the Stockholm Appeal. Indonesian women are only name
Merdeka, 20 Feb 1951, p. 2: PKI protests France's 24 Jan 1951 expulsion of the WFTU, WFDY and WIDF from Paris; Gerwis and a printers' union send similar protests to the French minister.
WIDF commemorative booklet (Berlin, 1955) for its tenth anniversary: history from the 1945 Paris founding congress, peace and anti-atom campaigns, the 1953 Copenhagen Congress, children's work, the 1955 Lausanne World Congress of Mothers. Page 28 states that in Indonesia 'the women's organization which had 6,000 member
Chinese-language transcript (scan, noisy OCR; English translation read) of a conversation between Zhou Enlai, Deng Yingchao and Eugenie Cotton, WIDF president, 22/23 May 1955 (Wilson Center Digital Archive). They discuss women's role in peace, the planned World Mothers' Congress in Paris, Franco-German reconciliation a
1956 extract from a speech by Sunardi, Indonesian delegate to the World Conference of Women Workers, plus a column of international women's news. She describes low wages, foreign monopolies, plantation women workers, absence of democratic marriage law and labour protection, the unilateral abrogation of the Round Table
WIDF Council (Peking, 24-30 April 1956) 'Appeal to the Women of Asia and Africa', with a side item on a European girls' conference in Paris. The appeal salutes anticolonial struggles, welcomes the Bandung principles, and opposes the Baghdad and SEATO pacts and nuclear tests. Indonesia and Gerwani are not named.
Api Kartini travel report by Rusiyati, an Antara journalist, on her month-long visit to Australia (1960) at the invitation of the Australian International Women's Day committee. Describes staying with working-class, clergy, artist and industrialist families, meetings of 25-250 women, equal-pay campaigns, and Australian
Api Kartini article (1960) by Maasje Siwi, an Api Kartini staff member who attended the WIDF Council in Warsaw (29 Nov-5 Dec 1960), marking the WIDF's 15th anniversary. Delegates from 61 countries heard Eugenie Cotton review WIDF history (1948 manifesto, 1953 Copenhagen congress, 1955 Lausanne mothers' congress, 1958 V
Sovetskaia Kirgiziia, 16 Mar 1965, p. 3: page of TASS items on Vietnam war protests. Quotes a Gerwani statement, said to speak for over 2 million members, condemning US bombing of the DRV as 'a crime against humanity'. Also reports Indonesia withdrawing from the New York World's Fair over US support for Malaysia. Other
Neue Zeit, 27 November 1965, p. 4 (women's page): 'Die Kraft liegt in der Einigkeit', a history of 20 years of the WIDF (IDFF). Indonesia appears once, in a list of imperialist armed aggressions (Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaya, Korea) against which the WIDF organised protests. The article also stresses the DFD's role and I
Published proceedings of the 7th Congress of the Women's International Democratic Federation (WIDF), Berlin, 26 October 1975: opening and general-secretary addresses (Aruna Asaf Ali, Fanny Edelman), the report on WIDF work since the 1969 Helsinki congress, finance and credentials reports, the Prospective Plan to 1980 a
Francisca de Haan's article (German, Feministische Studien 2009) on the WIDF's early years 1945-50: founding congress in Paris, leaders Cotton, Ibarruri and Popova, and the destruction of the US affiliate by HUAC. Background on the federation Gerwani later joined.
Overview essay by Francisca de Haan (Women and Social Movements International database, c. 2012) on WIDF's origins, agenda, UN role and Cold War marginalisation, 1945-1991. Gerwani is listed once as a large, influential WIDF member organisation (with footnotes to Wieringa and to McGregor on Indonesian women and WIDF);
Yulia Gradskova's 2021 monograph on the WIDF, the Global South and the Cold War, based on GARF, RGASPI and IISH archives: Soviet supervision, Cold War battles and relations with women from Africa, Asia and Latin America. Background on the WIDF in which Gerwani participated.