Aubervilliers: Foundation of a New CPES and First Victories for the Residents of Vallès – La Frette!
We hereby share an unofficial translation of a recent report from La Cause du Peuple.
On Tuesday, September 9, a general assembly of residents of the Vallès-La Frette neighborhood in the city of Aubervilliers, in the Paris suburbs, took place. In this city, which is one of the poorest in France, problems are mounting: notably dirtiness, rats, unsanitary conditions, and bedbugs, which are well known to all residents of working-class neighborhoods.
Following this general meeting, a Popular Mutual Aid and Solidarity Committee (CPES) was founded, following the example of similar committees in other neighborhoods such as Mirail in Toulouse, Saint-Denis, the États-Unis neighborhood in Lyon, the Villejean neighborhood in Rennes, and Lille.
At the second meeting, ten days later, the decision was made to organize a gathering in front of the town hall to protest against uncollected trash and the filthiness of the communal waste and bulky item sorting areas.
The rally was a success, starting in the neighborhood and ending at City Hall, where residents spoke and delivered a letter to the mayor. A photo of a dead rat on a sidewalk in the neighborhood, an all too common sight, was left as a parting gift at City Hall before the rally ended.
Following this, silently and without publicly admitting it, the City Hall responded by having all the neighborhood’s trash collected, proving that the pressure from the gathering had worked! This is a first victory for the neighborhood’s collective organization! Let’s hope that this is only the beginning of a long journey.
The launch of this new CPES is in line with a dynamic that began with the creation of neighborhood committees across the country. Once coordinated at the national level, these initiatives will be better able to wage broader and more general struggles against poor housing, abusive landlords, and the unacceptable living conditions that certain municipalities impose on those who live where the masses live.
November 2025 will mark the 20th anniversary of the 2005 suburban revolt following the deaths of Zyed and Bouna, who were being pursued by the police. To mark the occasion, the CPES and other working-class organizations will organize events and actions in neighborhoods and elsewhere.
Because the CPES is not just a neighborhood organization, nor is it a tool for exerting pressure for better “urban policy”: it is an organization designed to help proletarians organize around the concrete problems they face in their communities, whether those communities are people’s neighborhood in large cities, small neighborhoods in medium-sized towns, or even a few streets in a small town or village.
What unites all these projects is collective organization to achieve concrete victories to improve our lives and create a space for organization in our communities in which to speak and act more broadly for the transformation of society in accordance with the interests of those at the bottom, and to no longer allow the course of our lives to be dictated to us.
