diff --git a/ckan/lib/task.py b/ckan/lib/task.py
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..6a2242861b8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/ckan/lib/task.py
@@ -0,0 +1,101 @@
+from rq import Queue
+from redis import Redis
+
+from logging import getLogger
+log = getLogger(__name__)
+
+redis_conn = Redis()
+queues = None
+
+
+def init_queues():
+    '''
+    Attempt to initialise the three queues on first use. There's no need
+    to create these until we need them (we might not). This will explode
+    if redis is not reachable
+    '''
+    global queues
+    try:
+        queues = {
+            'low': Queue('low', connection=redis_conn),
+            'medium': Queue('medium', connection=redis_conn),
+            'high': Queue('high', connection=redis_conn)
+        }
+    except Exception, e:
+        log.exception(e)
+
+
+def async(fn, arguments, priority='medium', timeout=30):
+    '''
+    Enqueue a task to be run in the background.
+
+        :param fn: A function to be executed in the background. This
+            should be imported by the caller, but the function itself should
+            avoid having dependencies on CKAN.
+        :type fn: function
+
+        :param arguments: A list of arguments to be passed to the function,
+            should be empty if there are no arguments.
+        :type arguments: list
+
+        :param priority: The priority of this task, low, medium or high.  By
+            default this is medium.
+        :type priority: string
+
+        :param timeout: How long this should wait before considering
+            the job lost
+        :type: integer
+
+    '''
+    if not queues:
+        init_queues()
+
+    if priority not in queues.keys():
+        raise ValueError("priority is not a valid value")
+
+    job = queues[priority].enqueue_call(func=fn,
+                                        args=arguments, timeout=timeout)
+    log.info("Enqueued task: %r" % job)
+
+
+def clear_tasks(queue_priority):
+    ''' Empties the specified queue and returns the number of items
+       deleted. '''
+    if queues is None:
+        init_queues()
+
+    if queue_priority not in queues.keys():
+        raise ValueError("priority is not a valid value")
+
+    # We have to manually clear the queue unless we use rqinfo on the
+    # command line
+    counter = 0
+    redis_conn = Redis()
+    while True:
+        job_id = redis_conn.lpop("rq:queue:%s" % queue_priority)
+        if job_id is None:
+            break
+        redis_conn.delete("rq:job:" + job_id)
+        log.info("Deleted task: %s" % job_id)
+        counter += 1
+    return counter
+
+
+def task_count(queue_priority=None):
+    '''
+    Returns the number of jobs in the queue specified, which should be low,
+    medium, or high. If no queue is specified, the size of all of the queues is
+    returned.
+    '''
+    if queues is None:
+        init_queues()
+
+    if queue_priority and queue_priority not in queues.keys():
+        raise ValueError("priority is not a valid value")
+
+    size = 0
+    if not queue_priority:
+        size = sum(len(q.job_ids) for q in queues.values())
+    else:
+        size = len(queues.get(queue_priority).job_ids)
+    return size
diff --git a/ckan/tests/lib/test_tasks.py b/ckan/tests/lib/test_tasks.py
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..0ef5513b615
--- /dev/null
+++ b/ckan/tests/lib/test_tasks.py
@@ -0,0 +1,46 @@
+# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
+import logging
+from nose.tools import raises
+
+import ckan.tests.helpers as helpers
+import ckan.lib.task as task
+
+log = logging.getLogger(__name__)
+
+
+def fake_function():
+    return 42
+
+
+class TestTasks(object):
+
+    def setup(self):
+        task.clear_tasks('low')
+        task.clear_tasks('medium')
+        task.clear_tasks('high')
+
+    def test_simple_async(self):
+        task.async(fake_function, [])
+        assert task.task_count('medium') == 1
+
+    @raises(ValueError)
+    def test_failing_async_bad_priority(self):
+        task.async(fake_function, [], priority="immediately")
+
+    def test_queue_size(self):
+        task.async(fake_function, [], priority='low')
+        task.async(fake_function, [], priority='low')
+        task.async(fake_function, [], priority='low')
+        assert task.task_count('low') == 3
+        task.clear_queue('low')
+        assert task.task_count('low') == 0
+
+    @raises(ValueError)
+    def test_queue_size_invalid(self):
+        assert task.task_count('immediately') == 0
+
+    def test_queue_size(self):
+        task.async(fake_function, [], priority='low')
+        task.async(fake_function, [], priority='medium')
+        task.async(fake_function, [], priority='high')
+        assert task.task_count() == 3
diff --git a/requirements.txt b/requirements.txt
index 0a8f6310ce5..47d70dcce51 100644
--- a/requirements.txt
+++ b/requirements.txt
@@ -33,6 +33,7 @@ repoze.who-friendlyform==1.0.8
 repoze.who==2.0
 requests==2.7.0
 routes==1.13
+rq==0.5.6
 simplejson==3.3.1         # via pylons HAND-FIXED FOR NOW #2681
 six==1.10.0               # via pastescript, sqlalchemy-migrate
 solrpy==0.9.5