Coffee and Che – In the Latin Quarter’s red corner class struggle is served in a cup
Tekst: Max Frandsen & Marcus Bladt Hansen
Foto: Roselle Knaus
Samfund | 23/10/2025 | 13. udgave
Bikes are racing by, hip young people are headed for Graven, and the bistros are overflowing. But Mejlgade also hosts Aarhus’ branch of the Communist Party at Café Oskar. A party that’s currently headed for a generational shift, where new age groups must take over, if it wants to avoid ending up as a relic from the masspolitical era.
From Café Oskars basement in on the corner of Nørreport and Mejlgade it’s clear that we’re in the Latin Quarter. Or just “the red corner”, as Birthe Ahrendt, chairman of Communist Party Aarhus, calls it. To get down here we have to snake our way down a rustic and almost dilapidated staircase. Creaking steps and worndown walls shows a lifetime of use. The smell is earthy, as it can be in basements, and you clearly hear the pipes, whenever someone flushes the toilet upstairs.
The walls of the basement are adorned with floor-to-ceiling paintings. Some of them are illustrations from a new edition of the Communist Manifesto. In the backroom to the basement, among archived documents, a portrait of Oskar Hansen is watching. He was the writer of the Danish communist movements unofficial anthem “Når jeg ser et rødt flag smælde” (When i see a red flag clap), and namesake to the café.
A hub for the left wing
When one enters through the front door upstairs, the cafe might look like one of many others in Mejlgade, with its coffee-drinking visitors, conversing amongst themselves. At least if you ignore the enormous portrait of Che Guevara behind the bar.
One can almost hear it give an impassioned speech about the oppression of the proletariat.
Around the locale, small four-man tables are pushed against the walls, perhaps to combat a space-issue. At one of these tables three older men are seated, talking to each other over beer bottles. At another a young woman is sat, doing homework on her laptop.
All of them seem somewhat apathetic to the surrounding tapestry, the elephant in the room and what sets Café Oskar apart from all the other Mejlgade-cafés.
Because the walls are covered in communist references. Take for example the previously mentioned Che Guevara-portrait or the full-size Palestine flag, that greets everyone who enters. Let your eyes wander to the massive bookshelf containing both old and new red literature. Or notice the small details, like the little Karl Marx bust on the bar counter.
The intention is to create a meeting place, where anyone can come and sit – but make no mistake, the agenda is political.
“Many different types come here. Our goal is to act as a meeting place for the left wing in Aarhus. But everyone’s welcome”, says Birthe Ahrendt.
In a basement red as the revolution
Chairs and tables are sporadically strewn in the basement room. A wide array of folders are scattered, containing every copy of Communist Party’s newspaper - “Arbejderen” (The Worker) - from 1983 till 2019. Birthe nostalgically flips through an old edition, while she tells us, that they’re in the process of moving the archive. To avoid it being eaten by silverfish.
A banner on one of the tables reveals where we are. It’s bears the slogan “Vores By, Vores Kommune” (Our City, our municipality), and the sender has signed at the bottom – Communist Party.
“Do you recognize it?”, Brian asks with a twinkle in his eye while pointing to a symbol in the middle of the banner. He’s a member of the Communist Party and plays an important role in running Café Oskar. The symbol mainly looks like the logo for the game company Atari. “No, they’re way too young for that”, Birthe answers with a laugh. Brian explains that the symbol was used during the Olympics in Moscow in 1980. He took himself the liberty of adding the communist coat of arms – the hammer and sickle – to the illustration.
Communist, consistently
Shortly thereafter, she mentions that the café, outside opening hours, acts as a workspace, where the party has meetings and facilitates the daily operation. Birthe herself acted as editor for “Arbejderen” from the backroom, until she stopped in 2019.
In general 69 year old Birthe has dedicated an inordinate amount of her life to the communist cause. In 1979 she joined what was then called Dansk Kommunistparti/Marxister-leninister (Danish Communist Party/Marxists-Leninists), which later fused with Communist Assembly to create Communist Party.
“My career is very typical for my generation. Many of my fellow party members also joined at a very young age in the 70’s and are still active”, she explains.
She has juggled the role as editor for “Arbejderen” and her other roles in the party since the late 90’s, where Café Oskar opened.
A lost generation
Birthe is retired. And she isn’t the only elder member in the Café Oskar team. The day we visit, all four of the volunteers are retirees. The cafe and the party alike are, in general, overrepresented by the older generation.
The overweight of elder members, that have been here since the 70’s, is noticeable. Birthe points out that the left wing sometimes refers to a lost generation, that Communist Party lost out on:
“It’s been some tough years. We often say that we’re missing a generation. People in their 30’s and 40’s. It’s the generation aged 65 and up, that built this party, and now we’re facing a shift in generations. The party is doing a lot of work to bring this to fruition.”
Now it’s up to Communist Party and Café Oskar to help the new generation along. The café is doing its part by hosting events - twice a month. The goal here is to bring in a diverse crowd, both in terms of age and political alignments – at least within the borders of the left wing.
“The events have to appeal broadly. What characterizes them, is that we meet around the subject at hand. Though we rarely invite people in, that we deeply disagree with”, says Birthe Ahrendt.
Generational shift or not, Communist Party lives on and is standing for the upcoming municipality election in November. And in the corner of the little basement room, the portrait of Oskar Hansen still sees the red flag clap.