[Peace-discuss] David Noble, academic and activist, dies at 65

[C. G. Estabrook]

[An important historian who showed that capitalist technology - notably 
automation - was driven by class relations, and not the other way around. RIP.]


Globe and Mail December 28, 2010
David Noble, academic and activist, dies at 65
By ADRIAN MORROW

York University professor was prominent critic of corporatization of academia

David Noble, one of North America's most prominent critics of the
corporatization of academia and a groundbreaking researcher on the
influence of technology on society, died Monday evening at age 65. He
passed away in hospital unexpectedly of natural causes with his family at
his side, friends said.

Prof. Noble rose to prominence for his critiques of technological
automation, which he argued had been a method of depriving workers of
power. He worked at the Massachusettes Institute of Technology and later
at York University in Toronto, where he quickly became known for his
political activism.

In 2001, he was denied an appointment to the J.S. Woodsworth research
chair at Vancouver's Simon Fraser University, despite the backing of
faculty, which he blamed on his activism against corporatization. Seven
years later, he settled out of court with the university, which
acknowledged that it had made mistakes.

A Jew and an opponent of Zionism, Prof. Noble garnered an angry reaction
from York in 2004 when he published a pamphlet accusing a school
fundraising body of being "biased by the presence and influence of staunch
pro-Israeli lobbyists, activities and fundraising agencies," and proceeded
to name members of the group who had ties to Jewish organizations. After
York condemned his actions, he sued the school for defamation, a case that
was due to go to trial next year.

Two years later, he launched a complaint with the Ontario Human Rights
Commission against York's practice of cancelling classes on some Jewish
holidays, maintaining that it constituted discrimination against
non-Jewish students. The university changed its policies before the case
was heard.

"He was very vehement, vibrant, intense," said Denis Rancourt, a former
University of Ottawa professor and a close friend of Prof. Noble's. "He
was very energetic and exciting to be around in terms of all the ideas."

Mr. Rancourt credited Prof. Noble with motivating his students' activism
and described his intense passion.

"One time he called me after an opera performance to express that the
singer was so powerful that he was convinced we would all live forever,"
he said.

He had planned to retire from classroom teaching this summer, he said.

"He was very courageous in his ability to unwaveringly speak truth to
power," said Yavar Hameed, his lawyer. "He was unafraid to speak up
against the corporatization of education."

The Canadian Arab Federation issued a statement on his death: "Canada lost
a truly noble person, both in name and in the essence of his character."

Prof. Noble is survived by his wife, three children and two brothers.