What is Revolutionary Violence?
László Molnárfi
Reprint of speech delivered on November 4th 2025 at the Free Speech Forum held in Trinity College Dublin, for archival purposes.
In this speech, I will elucidate the necessity and justification for civil disobedience, protest which falls outside the realm of liberal respectability, in reference to the Palestine solidarity movement which has swept the Irish nation in recent years.
My aim shall be to elaborate on a framework of what is permissible by relying on a Marxist understanding of the world.
At the outset, there is a need to expose the political hinterland of Ireland, and its so-called democracy. In school, we are taught that we live in a democracy, where the politicians we elect act according to our interests. Under such a society, there is no need for protest. The State and its various arms are service providers, receive the complaints of citizens and act accordingly. However, the State is not a neutral arbiter. If the austerity imposed by unelected EU technocrats with the complicity of the Irish government in 2010 proved anything, it is that the social contract is broken. Despite protests, the disenfranchisement of tens of millions. The brutality of the liberal democratic capitalist system was laid bare in the 2010s. What ensued is called social murder. Social murder is the deliberate policy choices which leave ordinary citizens with worse life outcomes, leading to premature death, as conceptualized by Engels.
It is the machinations of the same system when it comes to Palestine. It has been 2 years since the start of genocide, in Gaza, perpetrated by the terrorist state of Israel, which has indiscriminately killed Palestinians by the tens of thousands. 76% of Irish people call for action. What do we get? Sanctions. Zero. Divestment. Zero. Boycott. Zero. Milquetoast statements are all our Government could muster up. The State, under the capitalist system, does not represent the people. It represents a way of balancing between the people and capitalist interests, always leaning towards the capitalists rather than the people … foreign direct investment by the United States, the Zionist pressure lobby from the European Union and socioeconomic ties to the British, amounting to billions of euros, has stolen our democracy. They have sold Ireland over to foreign power, stripping us of a sovereign parliament, and handed control over to American, European and British imperialism.
The State, which claims to speak on behalf of the people, and hereby asserts its claim to speak from a universal perspective, in reality speaks for the ruling class, while subordinating the people to the ruling class. The university of Capital; not the universality of humanity. The protection of autonomy, and the self-determination of human beings and the protection of life contained therein … the State has defied this by its mere existence.
The breach of the social contract is a violent act in itself. The capitalist system is inherently violent. It is merely dispersed violence hidden under institutional facade; cold, calculated and rational. Whether at home with austerity, or funding the genocide in Gaza, it disenfranchises and impoverishes tens of millions, destroys healthcare, education and housing, leading to the brutality of homelessness, poverty and war. In order to restore autonomy, when institutional recourse fails to work, civil disobedience is a natural conclusion.
There is non-violent and violent civil disobedience, which often transitions into one another.
Non-violent civil disobedience is desirable. The pro-Palestine protestors have adopted this moral code. There is a range of non-violent tactics and strategies. They occupy buildings, block economic trade and vandalize property. These are victimless crimes, where no individuals are harmed. Property, trade and Capital are not people. They are lifeless entities.
It is, in turn, the State forces, law enforcement, who engage in violence against the people. This is called a “legitimate” exercise of violence. However, what constitutes “legitimate” is a political category in itself. In response, the people have a right to resist, by violent means if necessary. It is “legitimate”, because it is self-defence. It is self-defence, because by defying the autonomy of people in the first instance passively, and then asserting its breach as permissible in the second instance actively, the State has forfeited its right to peace. This happens again and again and again, forming an essential part of the oppressive capitalist machinery. It is true that the State is at times attacking, other times co-opting or retreating, but it is effecting a state of permanent class-against-class violence nonetheless, and once the springs of rebellion burst forward, it can do no other than to brutalize. So, autonomy as a right must be fought for, mediated by class struggle, in a collective manner. We, the Communists, aim to destabilize liberal democracy, smash the State, and in its place, erect the rule of popular will through council democracy. Does the slave have a right to enact violence on the slaveowner, in order to secure freedom, I ask?
Self-defence, thus, is the mechanism by which non-violent civil disobedience transitions into its violent counterpart. In fact, this is the same as revolutions. Revolutions are conducted without bloodshed – take for example, October 1917. It is only after, when reactionary forces assemble, the White Army, that people are forced to engage in self-defence. This self-defence takes place in the context of war – class war – a just war in which the agents of the State enter into conflict with the people who attempt to assert their democratic will.
Within such historical dynamics, the rules of war apply. This includes avoiding non-belligerents, respecting proportionality and minimizing casualties. The revolutionary-minded people, who stand for the universal sanctity of human life, do not desire violence. They, however, have the right of self-defence; self-defence against the ruling class, who are crystallized in the entity known as the State, an illegitimate power over the people.