A lawyer accused of conspiring to help terrorists suggested yesterday that violence was necessary to overthrow oppressive governments around the world and to combat the evils of capitalism in America.

Attorney Lynne Stewart uncloaked her revolutionary views to the delight of prosecutors who are trying to prove at her trial in U.S. District Court in Manhattan that she not only represented a terrorist but that she also all but became one.

The government says she provided material support to terrorists by letting her client, Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman, deliver messages to followers despite restrictions imposed after his 1995 conviction for plotting to blow up New York City landmarks.

The lengthy questioning on the subject of violence began when Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrew Dember asked Ms. Stewart about her comments that violence was necessary to reverse an “entrenched ferocious type of capitalism” that breeds sexism and racism.

“I’m talking about a popular revolution,” she said. “I’m talking about institutions being changed and that will not be changed without violence.”

The prosecutor repeatedly pressed Ms. Stewart, 65, to explain what she meant by violence and what kinds of institutions she believed must be attacked. Each time, she said civilians must not be targeted and left unclear what kind of violence she meant.

“I believe entrenched capitalism needs to be changed, and that’s not easy,” Ms. Stewart said sternly, minus the smile that had accompanied many of her seven days of testimony in a trial expected to last six months.

When Mr. Dember asked if violence was necessary to change the institutions of capitalism, she said, “I don’t think they will give up without that kind of threat.”

Ms. Stewart reminded the jury that the American Revolution was accomplished through violence and that violence, including the Civil War, ended slavery in America.

Yet, she said: “We’re not in those times yet. People will make the right decision about which to attack.”

The former school teacher and librarian added, “The New York City Board of Education could be one to attack.” The remark received chuckles around the courtroom.

Shortly afterward, Ms. Stewart’s lawyer Michael Tigar objected to what he called the attempts to review his client’s “abstract political views.”

“We’re getting perilously close to bridges, buildings, and tunnels and which I suggest are irrelevant,” Mr. Tigar told Judge John G. Koeltl.

The judge said the testimony was relevant because it touched on violence as it related to the charges in the case. Throughout the trial, Ms. Stewart and her lawyers have told the jury that she was a zealous advocate for the blind Egyptian sheik, whom she represented at trial and after he was sentenced to life in prison. But they say she acted only as a lawyer.

Prosecutors contend she became a conduit for the sheik to communicate with members of the Islamic Group, an Egyptian terrorist organization that advocated violence, sometimes as part of an effort to free the sheik.

Ms. Stewart insisted that she did not advocate attacks against civilians and that she deplored a November 1997 attack in Luxor, Egypt, that killed 58 foreign tourists and four Egyptians, including police officers. Published reports said members of the Islamic Group carried out the attack and hoped to benefit the sheik.

Ms. Stewart said violence that harms innocent people sometimes is unavoidable, even in Iraq. She said, “You can’t always separate out the combatants from the noncombatants.”

Mr. Dember asked her if it was acceptable that civilians died during a terrorist attack at an Israeli nightclub and civilians died in an attack on a stock exchange in England. Ms. Stewart said she understood the pain of both sides.

“People get killed who are in proximity, and it’s completely unfair, and people doing the attack, they see their lives as unfair,” she said.

Ms. Stewart is charged along with Ahmed Abdel Sattar, a U.S. postal worker and former paralegal for the sheik, and Mohamed Yousry, an Arabic translator. Mr. Sattar, accused of conspiring to kidnap and kill people in a foreign country, could face life in prison if convicted. Ms. Stewart and Mr. Yousry, who also faces a charge of providing material support to terrorists, could face about 18 years in prison. All have denied wrongdoing.