WIDF 1950: From All Parts, Women Write to the WIDF
WIDF bulletin, 1950: 'From All Parts, Women Write to the WIDF' with reports from South Africa, Israel and Indonesia. The Indonesia section recounts women in the Republic's struggle against the Dutch, mass May Day rallies (390,000 in 1950), repression after the Madiun era, harsh conditions for plantation women, and supp
WIDF pamphlet (Berlin, Dec 1952) surveying women's political rights, wages, unemployment, education, rural conditions and social protection country by country, and issuing the Call to the World Congress of Women (Denmark, June 1953). Indonesia appears briefly: equal rights on paper under the 1950 Constitution, no elect
FBIS, 6 June 1952: Indonesian peace movements (Suwarti and Surjonegoro interview)
FBIS-monitored Chinese Home Service excerpts (6 Jun 1952): press interview with Indonesian delegates Suwarti and Surjonegoro in Peking. They described Indonesian livelihood under foreign capital, the land question, US aid and the rubber embargo (prices down about 70%), and said over 600,000 Indonesians signed a request
Izvestiia, 20 Jun 1954: 'In Indonesia', travel notes of a Soviet women's delegate
Izvestiia, 20 Jun 1954. Travel notes by a member of the Soviet women's delegation (Anti-Fascist Committee of Soviet Women) touring Indonesia: Jakarta, Boyolali rally where Gerwani representatives and the woman who invited them questioned the guests about the USSR, plantation conditions near Bandung, Round Table agreeme
Keynotes of the Council Meeting: Unity and Confidence (Bertrand, 1955)
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
1956 WIDF bulletin item on Indonesia: the Gerwani Central Council's report on cooperation with other women's organisations, overcoming mistrust, membership rising from 281,000 to 565,147, local marriage-rights actions, rural work with peasant groups, the All-Indonesia Women's Congress adopting Gerwani's proposed Charte
Moscow News, 30 May 1956: Indonesian women's delegation in Moscow
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,
Geeta Mukherjee, 'About the Movement of Indonesian Women' (WIDF Circular Attachment, 21 April 1958)
Report by Indian MP Geeta Mukherjee on Gerwani, attached to a WIDF circular of 21 April 1958, based on talks with her neighbour Suwarti Bintang Suradi, WIDF Secretariat member and Gerwani organisation chair. It covers Gerwis's 1950 origin and renaming, the Third Congress, membership growth (to 460,000 by August 1957),
Mudikdio, 'Indonesia': Speech at the 4th WIDF Congress, Vienna, 1958
Speech by Mrs Mudikdio (Mudigdio), vice-chair of Gerwani and head of the Indonesian delegation, to the WIDF Fourth Congress, Vienna 1958. She urges a WIDF study or seminar on peasant women (50% illiteracy in Indonesia), explains Gerwani's 1954 draft marriage-law principles and support for the draft before Parliament (G
IVth Congress of the WIDF, Vienna, 1958 (Berlin Edition): Conference on the Rights of Women
Berlin edition of the WIDF IVth Congress (Vienna, June 1958) pamphlet on the conference 'Conditions which will enable woman to fulfil her role as mother, worker and citizen' (98 delegates, 55 countries). The Indonesian section (pp. 66-70) has Mudigdio, Gerwani vice-chair, urging a WIDF study or seminar on peasant women
FBIS, 28 March 1959: Aidit broadcast speech (farewell to the Chinese people)
FBIS-monitored Xinhua text (28 Mar 1959) of D.N. Aidit's farewell broadcast to the Chinese people after a fortnight's PKI delegation visit. He praises the Great Leap and people's communes, defends them against 'imperialist lies', and argues peasant women welcome communal dining and nurseries because 'a smoky kitchen is
Italian Women
Article by Sulami (1960) reporting on the 8th national congress of the Union of Italian Women (UDI) in Rome in May, attended by 783 delegates and foreign guests including Indonesia. Describes Maria Maddalena Rossi and Marisa Rodano, the women's demands (equal pay, pensions for housewives, social security, opposition to
Women's Footsteps in 1961 (Hurustiati Subandrio)
Article by Hurustiati Subandrio (1961) reviewing women's activity at the start of 1961. She lists the Gerwani-organised National Seminar of Peasant Women (17-20 January, Gedung Wanita, Jakarta), the Asian-African Women's Conference in Cairo, and preparations for the Indonesian Women's Congress (6-8 February). She links
A New Force: The Argentine Women's Movement
Api Kartini (1963) article on the Argentine women's movement, chiefly the Union of Argentine Women's work: its magazine Nuestras Mujeres, campaigns for school milk, price cuts, mothers' law, solidarity with strikers and Cuba, literacy courses, and a fifth congress with 220 delegates. Includes a 'Varia' note on Sudanese
Forward to Total Integration of Gerwani with Farm-Labourer and Poor Peasant Women, 1964
Brochure of Umi Sardjono's report to the Third DPP Plenum (Bandung, early 1964). Reviews domestic and world politics, Gerwani's work on children's education, TK Melati, legal aid and cadres, and argues for 'total integration' with farm-labourer and poor peasant women; notes a break with the WIDF majority.
Api Kartini (late 1964) article on Sukarno's 'The Era of Confrontation' speech at the Second Non-Aligned Summit, Cairo (5-10 October 1964), applied to Indonesia: confrontation with Malaysia and with the 'seven village devils' (landlords) in the interest of peasant women. Also carries a Kowani delegation's impressions o
Women in the Land of the Great Wall
Travel article by Kartinah (Kartinah Kurdi) (1964) on women in China, from an Indonesian delegation visit with Ibu Sumarno. She argues housewives are vital to the revolution and describes a Shanghai-area people's commune with women leaders, production figures, crèches, clinics and handicraft cooperatives. She uses this
FBIS-monitored Xinhua excerpt (10 Mar 1964) on the four resolutions adopted at the International Women's Day rally in Jakarta addressed by Sukarno: crush 'Malaysia' and aid North Kalimantan; help implement agrarian and crop-sharing laws against food difficulties; resist imperialist cultural infiltration; condemn US agg
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
Our Road: reports from many countries (WIDF, 1965), incl. Gerwani for Peasant Women
WIDF magazine 1965 'Our Road' news page (mid-1965), with reports on North and South Korean women, West German women against Emergency Laws, and Argentina/India/US actions. A 'GERWANI for Peasant Women' item says Gerwani's International Women's Day statement backed peasants' demands for the Basic Agrarian Law and Crop S
Soviet Woman, 31 Jul 1965: 'The Kazma Springs' and 'The Sun in Our Windows'
Soviet Woman, 31 Jul 1965, pp. 13-17: Soviet propaganda features, Igor Gaspel on 25 years of Soviet Estonia/Latvia ('The Sun in Our Windows') and Sergei Danilin's reportage on the Kazminsky collective farm, Stavropol, including women farm workers. No Indonesian, Gerwani or WIDF content; relevant only as sample of Sovie
Neue Zeit, 24 Nov 1979, p. 12: Among the Minangkabau the mothers rule
Neue Zeit, 24 November 1979, p. 12 ('Rund um die Welt'): feature 'Bei den Minangkabau regieren die Mütter' on the matrilineal Minangkabau of West Sumatra (about three million people, around Bukittinggi). It describes matrilineal descent, women's ownership of house and land, men's role as outside representatives, and ad
A Study of 'Aisyiyah, an Indonesian Women's Organization, 1917-1998 (Ro'fah, 2000)
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
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.
Tempo, 15 December 2024: Francisca Fanggidaej's network in the international women's movement
Tempo magazine article (15 Dec 2024, Ita Fatia Nadia and Iwan Kurniawan) on Francisca Fanggidaej in the international women's and Afro-Asian movements: IUS/WFDY Prague 1947, Berlin Youth Festival 1951, Bandung 1955, WIDF in East Germany 1957 representing Gerwani, Cairo 1961. It cites Gita Mukherjee's WIDF report on Ger