The Socialist Party of Ireland (SPI) is holding a public conference “Dangerous Ideas – A weekend of anti-capitalist debate” in Dublin on Friday 14^th and Saturday 15^th October.

Unfortunately I am not able to attend the event but here are a couple of key points I would have been trying to get across if I had been able to be present.

The SPI explicitly places itself in the political tradition of revolutionary Marxism and the ideas of the leaders of the Russian Revolution such as Lenin and Trotsky.

One of the best expressions of the core of those revolutionary Marxist ideas is contained in Lenin’s pamphlet “State and Revolution”. There are two key ideas developed in that pamphlet which make it a truly dangerous document – dangerous in the eyes of our capitalist rulers at least.

Firstly there is the need to overthrow, or “smash” as the most…