Desecuritizing working-class struggle: memory activism and active audiences in the commemoration of 3 March 1976 in Vitoria-Gasteiz

Abstract Around a hundred days after Dictator Francisco Franco's death, on March 3, 1976, police violently evicted 4,000 striking workers who had gathered for an assembly in the Church of San Francisco de Asís, located in a working-class neighborhood in Vitoria-Gasteiz. Five workers were killed and over a hundred were injured by gunfire. It was one of the largest massacres to occur during Spain's so-called transition to democracy. Five decades later, these violent events remain neither investigated nor brought to trial. While working-class struggle was securitized and the extreme use of violence legitimized by the authorities at the time, contemporary grassroots memory work actively desecuritizes working-class resistance through guided tours in the neighborhood. Based on one-to-one interviews with memory activists, participant observation of walking tours, and participants' reflections, this article examines the underexplored role of memory work in desecuritization processes and how audiences engage with this work. Offering deeper insight into desecuritization as a dynamic, embodied, and intersubjective process, the article identifies immersive contextualization, a forensic approach, artwork, and participatory debates as key mechanisms. It concludes that activist guided tours serve as a form of commemoration that facilitates trajectories of desecuritization and radical democratization, countering a legacy of national security-led securitization.