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Polish Communist Party leaders began to realize that they were facing a very real crisis and were unsure how to respond (1980). They were not used to negotiating as they had held power in Poland since 1945 with the Red Army and NKVD putting them in power and threatening ton intervene if needed. The Solidarity movement had grown out of all proportions to what Communist officials had to deal with before. Solidarity had achieved a level of support that they were able to make demands for reforms that the Communists could no longer ignore. Officials were divided as to how to deal with the Solidarity challenge. Poland's economy was on the verge of collapse. Socialist economics fail where ever tried. And Poland was no exception. As a result, Polish workers were poorly paid. Workers were not only poorly paid, but food and consumer goods were heavily rationed. This was all in sharp contrast to the prosperity and affluence of Western Europe. We are not sure just how much Polish workers knew about conditions in the West, but surely they had some idea. But even more importantly they were all too aware of their own economic conditions, food shortages and the lack of consumer goods. Not only was this the impact of the failure of socialism, but there was also mismanagement and taking out extensive foreign loans that were used for projects that proved no more successful than the Polish economy as a whole. Communism had clearly failed. Officials did not only have Solidarity to contend with. The Soviets were not at all happy with their Polish colleagues for allowing an actual free labor union to form, let along to become an important force. The possibility of Soviet military intervention was growing. Polish officials were increasingly thinking that there would have to be a 're consolidation' of power. General Jaruzelski was the Prime Minister and the First Secretary of the Party. He decided that without Martial Law, Soviet military intervention was inevitable. There is every reason to believe that he correctly assessed the situation. His decision was thus a kind of self-defense action. We know that the Soviets, were increasingly uneasy about the growth of Solidarity believed that they were gaining the upper-hand over the Party. And they were threatening to invade.
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