Allied Troops End ‘Non-Frat’ Order¶
Core Argument¶
The chapter reports on the collapse of the Allied non-fraternisation order in Germany, just over two months after the Nazi defeat, and presents this as the first significant blow to Anglo-American imperialist plans for the country. The ban, enforced with severe punishments and backed by a propaganda campaign that sought to blame the entire German people for Nazi crimes, failed because mass violations by Allied troops made it a farce. The ruling classes in Britain and the United States, the text argues, were forced to retreat, compelled to seek some social base among the German population rather than ruling by bayonet alone. Concessions on political party activity and trade union rights are also anticipated.
The core argument is that the non-fraternisation policy was a tool of class rule, designed to prevent solidarity between Allied soldiers and German workers. The chapter contrasts the suffering of the German masses with the continued luxury of the capitalist class, citing a Daily Express report from Berlin’s black market, where waiters in tails serve brandy at 30 shillings a glass while butter costs £47 a pound and a new suit £250–300. The Times is quoted warning that famine in the Ruhr is likely and that an army of occupation cannot survive amid starvation. The text argues that the real backers of Nazism—German and British capitalists—escape punishment while the burden falls on workers and peasants.
The Stalinist bureaucracy in the Soviet zone is denounced for a double game: allowing limited political activity by capitalist parties while systematically stripping Germany of machinery and goods to strengthen Russia, and for propping up capitalism rather than building communism. The chapter reports that Trotskyists and former Spartacists have formed the German section of the Fourth International, and that Stalinist press attacks on them have already begun. The polemic is directed against both Anglo-American imperialism and Stalinist bureaucracy, with the Fourth International presented as the only force capable of uniting workers across national lines. The chapter concludes that the peace imposed by the victors will be no more durable than Hitler’s, and that the coming struggles will lead to a Socialist United States of Europe.