Travers Clement was an American

socialist Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the e ...

writer, politician, and political functionary. He is best remembered as an assistant to Angelica Balabanoff in the writing of her memoirs and for his tenure as the National Executive Secretary of the

Socialist Party of America The Socialist Party of America (SPA) was a socialist political party in the United States formed in 1901 by a merger between the three-year-old Social Democratic Party of America and disaffected elements of the Socialist Labor Party of Ameri ...

beginning in April 1939.

Biography

Early years

Travers Clement lived in

Los Gatos, California Los Gatos (, ; ) is an incorporated town in Santa Clara County, California, United States. The population is 33,529 according to the 2020 census. It is located in the San Francisco Bay Area just southwest of San Jose in the foothills of the ...

during the 1930s, where he was active in the local organization of the

. Clement was an active member of the

Newspaper Guild The NewsGuild-CWA is a labor union founded by newspaper journalists in 1933. In addition to improving wages and working conditions, its constitution says its purpose is to fight for honesty in journalism and the news industry's business practice ...

and the Sailor's Union during the 1930s."Travers Clement Named National Secretary of SP," ''The Socialist Call,'' vol. 5, no. 7, whole no. 200 (April 29, 1939), pg. 3.

Political career

In 1928, Clement was named the national publicity director of the

American Civil Liberties Union The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is a nonprofit organization founded in 1920 "to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to every person in this country by the Constitution and laws of the United States". T ...

(ACLU), a position which he retained through 1929. In that year, he became secretary of the National

Mooney Mooney is a family name, which is probably predominantly derived from the Irish Ó Maonaigh, pronounced Om-weeneey. It can also be spelled Moony, Moonie, Mainey, Mauney, Meaney and Meeney depending on the dialectic pronunciation that was anglic ...

Billings Billings is the largest city in the U.S. state of Montana, with a population of 117,116 as of the 2020 census. Located in the south-central portion of the state, it is the seat of Yellowstone County and the principal city of the Billings Metrop ...

Committee. He remained an active member of the executive board of the ACLU's local committee in

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

. Clement was the author of several pamphlets for the ACLU, as well as material dealing with the Mooney-Billings case and the Maritime Union. He was also a periodic contributor to ''

The New Republic ''The New Republic'' is an American magazine of commentary on politics, contemporary culture, and the arts. Founded in 1914 by several leaders of the progressive movement, it attempted to find a balance between "a liberalism centered in hum ...

'' magazine. Clement was elected to the governing National Executive Committee of the Socialist Party at the April 1938 convention of the organization held in Kenosha, Wisconsin. When Executive Secretary

Roy E. Burt Roy Everett Burt (September 16, 1890 – April 14, 1967) was a United Methodist Church, Methodist clergyman and an American socialist politician and functionary. Burt is best remembered as the Executive Secretary of the Socialist Party of Ameri ...

resigned early in April 1939, the NEC named Clement as the new head of day-to-day operations of the organization.

Footnotes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Clement, Travers American socialists California socialists Executive Secretaries of the Socialist Party of America People from Los Gatos, California Socialist Party of America politicians from California