10/04/11 - Left Parties

Yesterday at Camp Coyote there was a discussion of electoral politics and direct democracy. The electoral politics reviewed the reality that we currently do not have a federal level left party. We discussed needing work on that and how many electoral reforms will be necessary for that. Among the reforms necessary were same day registration, ballot access laws, and instant runoff voting.

Someone asked if there were differences in outcomes between proportional representation and "winner take all." The winner take all systems tend to have two parties, and lean more to the right in general when compared with proportional representation. Another idea presented was for those who do not participate in the primaries to register with a left political party. This will begin to build collective electoral action. Below are a list of left political parties recognized by NM.

Not all independents identify as left or right.

Independents:

Independent (IND)
Independent New Mexican Party (NMI)

Left:
La Raza Unida de Nuevo Mejico (LRU)
New Mexico Socialist Party (SNM)
New Party of New Mexico (PNM)
Peace and Freedom Party (PAF)
Socialist Labor Party (SLP)
Socialist Workers Party (SWP)
Worker's World Party (WWP)