The recession following the 2008 banking crisis hit Alberta with mass service cuts and lost jobs.  Now, the Alberta ruling class, including the new premier, Alison Redford, pretend that the crisis never happened.  However, behind this happy façade, mass attacks are being prepared against Alberta workers.  As was demonstrated with the popularity of the Occupy movements in Calgary and Edmonton, Alberta workers can be mobilized in a fight back against capitalist austerity.

The federal Conservative government has announced that it will dismantle the Canadian Wheat Board.  This is an attack on the viability of family farming in Canada and will only benefit the large multi-national agro-corporations. By extension, it is also an attack on all who work for a living: the youth, workers, and even small business owners. We must save the Wheat Board from this attack.

On the surface, Alberta can appear as a solid bastion of White Christian Conservatism with the Tories in complete control and the working class seemingly disinterested. The election of Naheed Nenshi, an Indo-Canadian Muslim and Harvard-educated intellectual, as the new mayor of Calgary has shown this idea to be false. The media reported Nenshi as being the first Muslim to hold the office of mayor in a major Canadian city; the fact that this has happened in Calgary makes it a bigger surprise to many.

In the midst of the oil-sand-fuelled economic boom in Alberta, people across the province are facing what could be the worst housing crisis in its history. The rapidly developing oil industry has caused a migration of people from across the provinces into Alberta and has put a tremendous pressure on the housing and rental market. The profit motive has been incapable of meeting the demands of working class people. We need universal affordable public housing now.

On Tuesday, February 12, two prominent members of the Communist Party of Canada and Anti Racist Action were the target of an attack by suspected Neo-Nazis in Calgary. Fightback unreservedly condemns these cowardly acts and calls for working class unity against such attacks.