POLAND-Threat of Intervention

POLAND Threat of Intervention Ramnath Narayanswamy THE parallel between the recent occurrences in Poland to the events that preceded the Soviet intervention in Czechoslovakia in 1968 is striking in several respects. The recent warning issued by the Soviet Union which did not rule out the possibility of an impending intervention to save the Polish state from what was described as "counter-revolution" by "anti-socialist, aggressive trade unionism" is closely reminiscent of the situation in Czechoslovakia over twelve years ago where the Soviet Union had called on all "socialist and patriotic forces" to defend the "revolutionary gains" of over thirty- five years of communism. Although the warnings, taken by themselves, do not necessarily indicate imminent military action, the fact that they have been taken seriously enough by Lech Walesa, leader of Solidarity, the independent Polish trade union, to warn the striking Warsaw steel workers to avoid a response "through rockets and tanks", coupled with the indeterminate situation that obtains in Poland today, are sufficient indicators that a direct intervention cannot be entirely ruled out.