Germany’s First Round (1938)

From the May 1938 issue of the Socialist Standard

The art of lying is one of the chief characteristics of capitalism everywhere. The main task is to present the lie in such a manner as to make it appear to be true. This, unfortunately, is easy. The working class, from childhood onwards, are trained in such manner best calculated to make it difficult for them to separate truth from falsehood. This deception is aided by the reformist movement. Clear evidence of this can be seen to-day. The capitalist' class cleverly conceal their real aims behind lofty phrases, so that to-day we hear from all quarters the words and slogans, "Peace,” “Democracy,” "Collective Security,” etc.

With these war-cries capitalism is stampeding the masses into a war atmosphere. This is made necessary by the time factor. Twenty years has not been sufficient to destroy the memories of the last world war. The Communist frothblowers, the Labour Party and their allies, having misled the workers by fallacious teaching for years, can only echo capitalism’s subtle catchwords. The Socialist has no need to do this, for he knows the cause of war and is not sidetracked.

Germany enters the arena once again to do this time (if possible) what she failed to do last time. German capitalism was rather late on the scene, and found it difficult to build up a gigantic empire in competition with Britain and France—who had got there! It is doubtful if Germany sought to challenge the world at once, but so it turned out. Factors outside Germany helped her considerably. The Franco-Russian alliance, the Entente Cordiale, the Morocco crisis, were all used by German capitalism to frighten the masses into the belief that a plot existed to encircle Germany. Militarism, the weapon of capitalists, became, in the case of Germany, its highest expression, a logical corollary of the gigantic task confronting her capitalist class. This task was not to bribe, cajole or bully a Mad Mullah, but to win a world empire in the teeth of and in competition with powerful hostile States at her door. Geographically, Germany was a land power, and her easiest way was Eastern. This reflected itself in the policy known as the “Drang Nach Osten,”—the turning to the East. It expressed itself in the grandiose project of the “Berlin to Bagdad” railway, which, if brought to fruition, would have enabled German exports to reach the Far East and India five days quicker than by the Suez Canal route, thus placing Germany in a position of great advantage.

A few moments' glance at a map of Europe will show the direction the railway would have to take. The following figures will indicate the growth of German capitalism, which necessitated it doing as Mussolini recently .said, in reference to the capitalism he serves: ”Expand or Explode.” In 1885, in Germany, 4 million tons of pig-iron were smelted; in 1913 it had risen to 15 million tons. In 1891 the output of coal was 73 million tons; in 1913 it had reached 185 millions. In 1913 she was second in the world's steamship tonnage (12 per cent.). Her export trade had reached, in 1914, no less than £500,000,000. In the first years of the present century the Kaiser declared, “Our future lies upon the water.” This observation was only made after the Kiel Canal had been completed some four years, and provided a direct German route from the Baltic to the North Sea, and signified a great addition to her naval might. The Kaiser’s telegram to Kruger caused a British squadron to be mobilised in the North Sea, and the capitalist class of Germany seized upon this for their speeches at home on “Being prepared.”

The commercial rivalry in the Eastern end of Europe was becoming bitterly keen, with Germany becoming the dominant power in Turkey. The Deutsche Bank became the real power behind the railway construction in Turkey. It operated through a syndicate known as the Anatolian Railway Co.

In 1898 the Kaiser visited Turkey and Palestine and, like all ”advance agents” seeking to advertise their wares or boost their show, he became “all things to all men,” anticipating his less ”royal” successor, Herr Hitler. Lying and hypocrisy being twin features of capitalism and its henchmen, it is not surprising to read, "At Jerusalem the Kaiser figured as the Christian knight errant, but at Damascus as the champion of the Moslem creed.” He was a successful bag-man, obtaining concessions for railways, etc., which enabled him to pose as an ally of a reviving Islam. British capitalism was being methodically undermined in Persia and the Middle East. It could not last long! It did not! It was settled in 1914-18! Was it? We shall see next month in a further article.

Lew.