Monthly Indonesian Press Survey (1958): Konferensi Nasional Wanita Komunis, Suharti, Setiati Surasto, Salawati

Title: Monthly Indonesian Press Survey (1958) - Communist Women, Gerwani conference, Suharti, Setiati Surasto, Salawati [HathiTrust coo.31924079086504] Source: HathiTrust Digital Library (full view, US government work), page OCR text via text-only view Volume: https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=coo.31924079086504 Date retrieved: 2026-10-17 Note: page-image PDFs could not be downloaded (HathiTrust temporarily blocked image downloads); OCR text only. Page #378 NO TEXT ON PAGE This page does not contain any text recoverable by the OCR engine. Page #379 I. POLITICAL A. First National Conference of Communist Women At present, according to the general report of the Politburo to the sixth plenary session of the Central Committee as published in Harian Rakjat of 3 April 1958, the primary concern of the PKI (Indonesian Communist Party) is to "stimulate, organize, and mobilize the masses as a prerequisite for strengthening the national unity front." This can be done only if the party can call on thousands of cadres to provide the leadership for such a broad mass movement. Consequently, during the past 2 years the PKI has been concerned with putting into effect its Three-Year Plan for Organization and Education. The purpose of this plan is to provide the party with a well disciplined and well-trained membership which will provide a solid framework within which the party can expand both its membership and its activities. One aspect of this attempt to consolidate the present organization of the PKI and to train its members so that they will be able to establish closer relations between the party and the masses whom the Communist vanguard is to lead has been an increasing concern with the problem of how to deal with the feminine element in both the party and the masses. According to the speech of Mrs Suharti to the first national conference of Communist women (held in Djakarta, 26-31 May 1958) as published in the 4 June 1958 Harian Rakjat, instructions had been issued as long ago as December 1954 for the formation of women's groups within the party which would function as auxiliary bodies to the ressorts. Under this system, the women would, it was hoped, have more opportunity to work and to study than they would if they were integrated into units dominated by men. However, implementation of these instructions did not proceed as it should, and many of the women's groups were stillborn or were maintained simply as hollow organizational shells devoid of any real utility. The party was therefore faced with the fact that, according to Aidit's speech to the conference as published in the 29 May 1958 Harian Rakjat, there were still only 100,000 women party members and that the majority of these were not serving the party's interest in approaching and mobilizing the great mass of Indonesian women for Communist ends. As Suharti Suwarto (undoubtedly the same person as the Mrs Suharti referred to above) indicated in an article in the September 1957 Bintang Merah -- published in Summary No 1794, Monthly Indonesian Press Survey (36) the party was particularly disturbed by the fact that the many women who had voted for the hammer and sickle in past elections had not yet become members of the party and that therefore their continuing usefulness to the party was not really assured. Page #380 Suharti went on to say that the fifth plenary session of the Central Committee decided that one way of approaching the problem would be to hold a national conference of Communist women. The task of this conference, according to the article, would be "to improve the work and expand the influence of the party among the mass of women." She also said that the party had already taken steps to hold Communist women's conferences at the subsecom (subsection committee), secom (section committee), and provcom (provincial committee) levels which would discuss the creation of women's groups, the expansion of party membership among women, how to increase the activity of organizations of revolutionary women, and how to assure a party victory in the coming elections. If such conferences were actually held at the lower levels of the party, Harian Rakjat provided them with little or no coverage. However, Aidit said in his opening address to the national conference that such preliminary meetings had been held in many regions and credited them with moderate success. Certainly, the subjects proposed for discussion by such conferences were carried over and made the main items for discussion by the first national conference of Communist women which was held in Djakarta from 26 to 31 May 1958 under the aegis of the Central Committee itself. Delegates to the conference came from all three provinces on Java, Greater Djakarta, the Celebes, the Lesser Sundas, Borneo, and Sumatra. The sessions of the conference were reported daily in Harian Rakjat from 27 May to 2 June in releases emanating from the secretariat of the Central Committee. The paper also published the complete texts of the three major speeches to the conference, the resolutions passed by the conference, and the greetings presented to the conference by leading Communist front organizations. The agenda of the conference included an opening speech by PKI Secretary-General D. N. Aidit entitled "Communist Women Struggle for a New Society"; a speech by Mrs Suharti (a member of the PKI fraction in Parliament and second deputy chairman of Gerwani (Indonesian Women's Movement)) headlined "Invigorate Women's Groups and Expand Party Membership Among Women"; commentary on these two speeches by the delegates and response to the commentary by Aidit, Mrs Suharti, and Sudisman; a third major address by Mrs Sundari (a member of the PKI fraction in Parliament and of the fraction's executive) entitled "Increase the Activity of the Women's Movement in Order to Make the Party Victorious in the Second Parliamentary Elections"; commentaries on this speech by the delegates; and the presentation of greetings from various PKI front organizations. On 27 May, Harian Rakjat indicated the importance of the conference by announcing that seated on the rostrum during the opening session were Aidit; Sudisman, Jusuf Adjitorop, and Siswojo, PKI secretariat members; Mrs Suharti and Mrs Sundari; and Setiati Surasto and Kartinah, members of the Constituent Assembly. The primarily feminine nature of the gathering was emphasized by the fact that baby-sitting facilities were provided for Page #381 the convenience of the delegates and by the fact that during the whole meeting only two men, Aidit and Sudisman, made speeches of any length. The keynote of the conference was struck by Aidit at the very beginning of his speech when he stressed the fact that the national conference of Communist women was a party conference and not a conference of members of women's mass organizations despite the fact that many of the delegates were activists in such mass organizations. Indeed, the evidence of the far greater coverage provided by Harian Rakjat for this conference than was devoted to the third national congress of Gerwani in December 1957 indicates that much of the importance of the conference derived from its very nature as a party conclave. Aidit went on to insist on the importance of making a proper distinction between the two roles played by Communist women if they hoped to perform correctly both as party members and as members of mass organizations. Since this particular meeting was a party conference, Aidit devoted much of his speech to an examination of the essential nature and function of Communist women as seen by the party. In so doing, his main problem was to resolve a basic conflict between the PKI's view of its members, whether men or women, and the status and functions of women in Indonesian society as a whole. Aidit began by pointing out that the rights and duties of women party members are exactly the same as those of their male comrades. He said that women Communists need not limit themselves to activities among the masses of women. Indeed, they must discuss and understand the general themes and problems connected with the work of the party as a whole if they are to contribute effectively to solving the problems involved in national political development, he said. However, he also reminded his audience of the backwardness of the mass of Indonesian women and the resulting need for special attention to be paid to the problem of increasing the organizational and political awareness of such women. It was this factor which demanded the convention of a party conference especially for women. Aidit then said that he sees a new force emerging in the midst of the masses of Indonesian women. This is the Communist woman, an intellectual woman, who is concerned not only with society as it now exists but also with the new society which is to be built. The thoughts, the desires, and the feelings of the Communist woman are of a very special nature which makes her a new type of individual, very different from the bourgeois woman. "The Communist woman contributes a new progressive quality to Indonesian society." She is able to explain why the present situation is as it is and how it can be changed; she is able to build and breathe life into organizations which will fight for democracy and renew the world; she can develop feelings of solidarity and comradeship in the struggle for a new society and world peace. Page #382 It is the responsibility of the party to train women who are this new type of individual. For Aidit places the struggle for feminine emancipation within the framework of Marxist-Leninist theory. All problems connected with this struggle must be carefully examined and discussed and a correct solution of them attained. Consequently, all party committees are responsible for the ideological, political, and theoretical training of their women comrades, and he suggests that political schools and party courses be established especially for women. In waging the struggle for emancipation, the militant vanguard formed by these "new Communist women" has meaning only if it is followed by the mass of women as troops. Although admitting the variety of interests and of goals of women from differing strata of society, Aidit urges the Communists to emphasize the unifying elements in the struggle for emancipation in order to produce a unified body of troops. He interprets the struggle for the emancipation of Indonesian women as being, on the one hand, a struggle for a legal equality of rights with men and for the implementation of such equality in new ways of life and, on the other hand, a struggle against misery in general. Aidit places this struggle for emancipation within the context of the total struggle for a democratic renewal of Indonesian society and says that it cannot be isolated from the struggle for democracy, full national independence, world peace, and opposition to capitalist oppression. He then argues the necessity for a federation of Indonesian women's organizations based on their common desire for emancipation and says that Gerwani must become a broader mass organization so that it will truly be the organization of the majority of Indonesian women. Such an organization would provide additional forces for the total Indonesian workers movement aimed at effecting profound changes in the political views of the people. Aidit is careful to say here that, if it depends on the Communists, such profound changes in Indonesian domestic and foreign policies will take place peacefully. One prerequisite for this he views as the existence of a militant, guided, and disciplined mass movement which is truly conscious of the political changes which it wishes to achieve. Aidit sees the party's task of attracting more women into the party as centering primarily on work among women workers and on work among specific sectors of women workers such as among women with religious affiliations He seems to see the party's responsibility as one of convincing the masses of workers that the present situation is the work of men and that it can be changed by men, by the mass of humanity, if organized and acting together to build a new Indonesia and a new world. He repeats his conviction that work among the women is one of the most important elements in the party's over-all policy and that all Communists must be convinced of this. Conversely, Aidit urges women's groups to take part in all the party's activities, and he applies this to women Communists on executive bodies and in other party organizations as well as to the ranks. One is Page #383 日 コ therefore left with the impression that Aidit visualizes the role of women in the party as part of a never-ending cycle in which the party as a whole strives to organize and educate the mass of Indonesian women and the cadres thereby produced contribute to the over-all work of the party. The second major speech to be heard by the conference was that of Mrs Suharti. It dealt with one of the major items on the agenda of the conference. The full text was published in the 4 June Harian Rakjat. In her remarks, Mrs Suharti was concerned primarily with the actual problems involved in organizing Indonesian women as members of Communist units. Many of her ideas had been previously expressed in her article in Bintang Merah referred to above and in an article by Setiati Surasto in the February 1957 issue of Kehidupan Partai, which was published in Summary 1468, Monthly Indonesian Press Survey (27). コ Mrs Suharti makes several practical suggestions, as follows, on how to activate women's groups. First of all, several simple activities should be developed, such as collecting dues or increasing party membership or establishing a kindergarten, in which the members of the group can participate. The place and time of group meetings should be such that all the members can attend. The meetings should be short and the agenda limited to the most necessary items, such as party policy, tasks concerning the elections, inflation, peace, or marriage legislation. The group leaders and the most "conscious" members should establish good relations with the other members and take a friendly interest in their affairs. Party committees should organize periodic meetings for discussion and exchange of experience among the leaders of several women's groups and if possible such meetings should be led by a woman cadre. The party committees should appoint a special functionary to deal with women's groups, Mrs Suharti says. If the recoms (ressort committees) do not have a capability for doing this, a subsecom or even a secom, island committee, or CDB (large region committee) functionary should be assigned this task. The party committees should provide guidance on the problems to be discussed, such as the meaning of equality of rights, ways of overcoming household difficulties, the necessity for party membership among women, the importance of dues, and the policies and tasks of women party members who are to become active elements in mass organizations. If women's groups still are not functioning, the committees should bring the members together and explain problems to them and insist on the importance of group meetings. The party committees, Mrs Suharti adds, are also responsible for prompting the husbands of members to help their wives attend group meetings. To intensify training, political schools, KPSS (Kursus Partai Subseksi, Subsection Party Courses), and KPS (Kursus Partai Seksi, Section Page #384 Party Courses) should be established especially for women. Mrs Suharti does not feel that it is necessary that there be special classes for women cadres in the SPP (Sekolah Partai Provinsi, Provincial Party School) and the SPC (Sekolah Partai Central, Central Party School). In her discussion of the expansion of party membership among women, Mrs Suharti notes that on Java the proportion of women members ranges from 6 to 17 percent and is generally much lower outside Java, except in West Sumatra, where it is 24 percent. She reiterates the fact that the extent of party influence among women depends greatly on the extent of party membership among women. She then advances the following suggestions for expanding membership. Candidate members should be raised to full membership so that they can then have an opportunity to become functionaries. The only conditions for promotion specified by the Three-Year Plan are payment of dues and attendance at meetings and at party courses. targets for expansion of membership are women workers, women peasants, and women intellectuals. Attracting members to the party can be facilitated by first attracting the wives of party functionaries, party members, mass organization functionaries, women members of mass organizations, officers and members of women's movements, voters for the hammer and sickle, women teachers, wives of civil servants, food peddlers, midwives, and so forth. If the wives of party functionaries have not become party members, they should be made members of the women's movement. The Mrs Suharti then says that some party functionaries and members may object to their wives becoming party members too, primarily because they will have to devote too much time to party activities and there will be no one to tend to household affairs. She adds that many women are loath to join the party because they are afraid of the demands of party discipline. Both these attitudes she terms mistaken and she counters by saying that party discipline is a living discipline and that tasks are assigned in accordance with the individuals! capabilities and willingness and with the objective situation of the person involved. Mrs Suharti suggests the following techniques for attracting members, Meetings can be held which deal with the rights of women and children and at which women cadres speak, for it has been found that women are particularly attracted by the party's attitude toward marriage. Aid can be provided at the time of death, illness, or childbirth. The party's correct attitude toward all members who violate Communist moral provisions as well as party actions in defense of the mass of women workers and peasants can be emphasized. Furthermore, party committees should undertake further study of problems dealing with the rights of women and children so that they will be equipped to deal with these problems, In conclusion, Mrs Suharti suggests that party committees make more use of Communist women activists as the backbone of party work in the villages, estates, factories, and kampongs. Page #385 After hearing Aidit's ideas on what the Communist woman should be and Mrs Suharti's proposals on how best to reach women and incorporate them effectively into the party, the conference was ready for a third major speech, that of Mrs Sundari. This was published in the 5 June 1958 Harian Rakjat and dealt with what women cadres are to do to build up the national unity front, to prepare for the general elections, and to carry out the Indonesian revolution. Her speech begins with a quotation from the General Program of the PKI: "the Indonesian Revolution at the present stage is a people's democratic revolution, that is, a revolution of the broad masses, led by the proletariat and directed against imperialism, feudalism, and the bourgeois compradors." Mrs Sundari sees the party's present problem as how to muster the forces necessary to effect this revolution. She suggests that its aim can be achieved by means of democratic elections for both central and regional representative assemblies accompanied by broad mass actions to obtain political, economic, and social rights. The mass movement envisaged must have compact, militant, and disciplined leadership, that is, the leadership of the PKI which represents the interests of the nation and of the people of Indonesia, according to Mrs Sundari. This applies to the women's movement as well. In addition, the women's movement must have a correct program which, of course, is the program of the PKI. Mrs Sundari says that every woman member of the PKI has the responsibility of playing the role of a leader of the mass movement. In accordance with the instructions issued by the sixth plenary session of the Central Committee, every woman Communist must join the women's mass movement in order to be able to solve the problems faced by women, she says. She must provide leadership in all the activities of the movement, and while doing so she must herself receive guidance from the appropriate party committee so that the Communist members of the women's movement will form an integrated unit. "To fulfill these conditions, the party fracture in mass organizations must be strengthened and must not be permitted to continue only to lean on the committee." The party committees, she adds, should hold periodic discussions with the fractions in which the problems faced by the fraction members can be solved. The fractions are to furnish the committees with periodic reports. She says there must also be discussions of practical problems and courses on party policy and Marxist- Leninist theory. Mrs Sundari also deals with the question of expansion of membership in the women's movement. She particularly emphasizes the need to attract members from the ranks of labor and cites the fact that 45 percent of estate workers are women, 65 percent of the workers in the textile industry are women, 60 percent of the workers in light industry are women, 65 percent of the workers in the cigarette industry are women, and that there are many women in government offices, particularly in the Offices of Communications, Health, Education and Culture, and Forestry, in addition to the large number of women engaged in domestic work. She also mentions peasants, women with special skills, the wives of government workers, the intellectuals, and artists as target groups. Page #386 Mrs Sundari is especially concerned with the need for a correctly formulated program as the basis for any activities to be undertaken by the women's movement. She proposes that such a program be based on the party's demands for equality of position between men and women and for a guarantee of the right of all children to a useful education. The program should also encompass such matters as democracy, peace, the struggle against feudalism, and labor problems, she says. In the effort to stimulate, organize, and mobilize the masses as the force behind the national unity front, Mrs Sundari still sees weaknesses. These she attributes primarily to the difference in social position between the Communist activists and the women of the middle groups which they wish to approach. She suggests that cooperation can be facilitated through the use of a program easily accepted by all groups, such as actions in defense of the rights of women, for benefits to children, and on behalf of peace, democracy, and national independence. She stresses particularly that all existing women's organizations must be drawn into such actions and that special attention must be devoted to attracting the middle groups and the prominent women in an area. Mrs Sundari then turns to a discussion of the general elections. As a result of past elections, she says, there are 5 women PKI nominees in Parliament, 6 in the Constituent Assembly, 180 in regional assemblies, one in a regional executive council, and one chairman of a regional assembly. However, she points out that this representation is slight considering the number of women voters and insists that women party members must be much more active in preparing for the next elections. Here she warns particularly against allowing any postponement of the elections as an opportunity for the parties supporting the rebels to consolidate themselves. In regard to nominations, she tells the party members in women's mass organizations to persuade their associates that such an organization's nomination of its own candidate would only split the organization's votes since the organization is comprised of a variety of political groups. stead, the PKI members of the organization who have continually shown their service of women's interests and who have the full confidence of the organization should be candidates for Parliament without involving the woman's organization which they lead, she says. She also proposes the formation of committees to support candidates which would direct the candidate's campaign. Mrs Sundari then suggests various means by which the women can raise money to contribute to the general elections fund. She insists that party members stimulate the candidate supporters committees to take the initiative in collecting such funds, but reminds them that the administration of the money must be well regulated and suggests centralization of the funds. She urges PKI members of mass organizations to be on the alert to and attempt to prevent the use of election symbols similar to that of the Page #387 PKI. As one way of working for an increase in votes for the PKI in the next elections, Mrs Sundari summons party members in Parliament and the regional assemblies to fight for an improvement in the lot of women, for democratic marriage laws, and for an improvement in the fate of children. She emphasizes particularly the need for concrete efforts whose utility will be directly felt by members of the women's movement and suggests several possible projects. Another portion of Mrs Sundari's speech was devoted to methods of campaigning. She seems to feel that the best method is to start holding small discussion groups and meetings long before the elections are scheduled at which everyday problems are discussed under the leadership of a woman cadre. It is up to the cadre to put across the party program at such gatherings and to give practical instruction on registration procedures and other matters involved in voting, she says. Mrs Sundari concludes by pointing out that every campaign is sure to produce activists, both in the field of organization and in propaganda. She says that such activists can be very useful to further party work and that the party must be careful to maintain their activity in the women's movement and gradually train them so that their political consciousness is increased in order to facilitate their being drawn into the party as members. In addition to these three major speeches, Harian Rakjat reported that the conference heard commentary on the speeches by the following delegates: Mrs Suning, Mrs Enok Rokajah, Mrs Siti Anna Markalim, Djempiring, Suwardiningsih, Mrs Muljani, Mrs Chalsah, Mrs Djumono, Mrs Tuti, Mrs Chadinar, Mrs Utarjo, Mrs Warsini, Mrs Subagio, Mrs Sukesi, Mudjiatun, Riwajati, Mrs Ronosudarmo, Mrs Sumijati, Mrs Hozaimah, and Mrs Darmi. None of these comments added anything to the substance of the speeches themselves. Other speakers to the conference included Mrs Salawati, Mrs Ningrum, Mrs Juswati, Mrs Samosir, Mrs Mintarsih Sardjono, and Comrade Ngadiman from the Central Elections Bureau of the PKI. The conference also organized committees to draw up resolutions based on the ideas expressed in the speeches of Mrs Suharti and Mrs Sundari. The committee for Mrs Suharti's ideas was headed by Suwardiningsih and was composed of Mrs Enok Rokajah, Mrs Siti Anna Markalim, and Mrs Tuti. The chairman of the other committee was Mrs Muljani. The major Communist front organizations all presented greetings to the conference, and these were published in the 3 and 4 June Harian Rakjat. Each greeting played on one or more themes enunciated in the principal speeches, highlighting their special meaning for the organization concerned. Mrs Umi Sardjono presented the greeting from the executive committee of Gerwani, Rachman that from the central executive council of the Page #388 BTI (Indonesian Peasants Front), Mrs Tuti Dharta that from the national council of Sobsi (All-Indonesia Central Labor Union), and Comrade Mudjiatun that from Pemuda Rakjat (People's Youth). Five resolutions were passed by the conference and the complete texts were published in the 3 June Harian Rakjat. The first dealt with the activation of women's groups and the expansion of party membership among women and simply repeated the main points made in the speeches of Aidit and Mrs Suharti. Similarly the fourth resolution concerned increasing the activity of the women's movement and was based on the speech of Mrs Sundari. The second resolution called for the abolition of atomic and hydrogen bomb tests; the third expressed the appreciation of the Indonesian Communist women to everyone who had helped crush the rebels; and the fifth stated the Communist position regarding the laws on marriage prepared by the PKI fraction in Parliament. None of the resolutions contained any arguments which had not already been presented elsewhere. B. Positions of PKI and Front Organizations on Current Issues 1. Regional Autonomy PKI dan Perwakilan, Vol III, No 1, for the first quarter of 1958, carried an article by Nungtjik A. R. on the basic problems of daerah (regional) autonomy which clearly outlined the PKI position on various issues involved in the transfer of greater local authority to the regions. The article begins with a brief historical analysis of the problem, stressing the differences between Java and the Outer Islands under the Dutch, particularly insofar as educational opportunities were available. Nungtjik then says that the PKI believes that a system must be devised in which all tribal groups would be equal in order to get rid of the remnants of colonial discrimination. However, this insistence on the superiority of a system of tribal autonomy does not mean that the PKI rejects a system of autonomy based on administrative regions as a provisional solution. He then discusses certain specific basic problems of regional autonomy. The first is the election of regional assemblies on the basis of proportional representation and of the regional executive councils on the same basis. This has been done in many regions, although the implementation of proportional representation in some executive councils has not been entirely satisfactory in the opinion of the PKI. With the election of such assemblies and councils, the parliamentary struggle has been extended to the regions. An opportunity is thereby provided for cooperation at this level between the representatives of various parties. In this connection, Nungtjik particularly stresses the fact that members of executive councils are jointly responsible for their actions. He then urges the formation of regional coalition governments so that the President's Concept may be implemented at the regional level even though it has not yet been effected in the central government. 10