ya, defanging this term by talking about 'capitalist tankies' seems off-putting initially - but I really think it is an effective tactic that will ultimately need to be embraced

they even did it first for completely economic reasons during the partition of Germany

In addition, the Marshall plan forced German companies, as well as those in all of Western Europe, to modernize their business practices, and take account of the wider market. Marshall plan funding overcame bottlenecks in the surging economy caused by remaining controls (which were removed in 1949), and opened up a greatly expanded market for German exports. Overnight, consumer goods appeared in the stores, because they could be sold for higher prices. While the availability of consumer goods is seen as a giant success story by most historians of the present, the perception at the time was a different one: prices were so high that average people could not afford to shop, especially since prices were free-ranging but wages still fixed by law. Therefore, in the summer of 1948 a giant wave of strikes and demonstrations swept over West Germany, leading to an incident in Stuttgart where strikers were met by US tanks ("Stuttgarter Vorfälle"). Only after the wage-freeze was abandoned, Deutschmark and free-ranging prices were accepted by the population.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deutsche_Mark#Economics_of_1948_currency_reform

edit: more interesting context

Eugene Keller writing about German 'denazification' and the Stuttgart Riots from 11/1948 https://www.marxists.org/history/etol//newspape/laboraction-ny/1948/v12n46/keller.html