39. The Centre.
Another group of parties composed of those who were once socialists constitutes the so-called “Centre.” Persons of this trend are said to form the “Centre” because they waver between the communists on one side and the jingo socialists on the other. Of this complexion are: in Russia, the left mensheviks under the leadership of Martov; in Germany, the “independents” (the Independent Social Democratic Party), under the leadership of Kautsky and Haase; in France, the group led by Jean Longuet; in the U.S.A., the Socialist Party of America, under the leadership of Hilquit; in Great Britain, part of the British Socialist Party, the Independent Labour Party; and so on.
At the outset of the war the centrists advocated the defence of the fatherland (making common cause in this matter with the traitors to socialism), and they opposed the idea of revolution. Kautsky wrote that the “enemy invasion” was the most terrible thing in the world, and that the class struggle must be postponed until everything was over. In Kautsky’s opinion, as long as the war lasted, there was nothing whatever for the International to do. After the conclusion of “peace,” Kautsky began to write