Jura Federation

The Jura Federation (French: Fédération jurassienne) was a federation of the anti-authoritarian International founded in the Jura region in 1872. It was one of the most prominent branches of the anti-authoritarian International and was one of the driving forces of that organization, being founded directly after the split between anarchists and Marxists during the 1872 Hague Congress and uniting many figures of anarchism over time, including Mikhail Bakunin, Peter Kropotkin, James Guillaume, Élisée Reclus, Adhémar Schwitzguébel, Severino Albarracín, Carlo Cafiero, Errico Malatesta, Jean Grave or Antoine Perrare.

The Canton of Jura, a Swiss area, was known for its watchmaker artisans in La Chaux-de-Fonds, who shared anti-state, egalitarian views on work and social emancipation. The Jura Federation formed between international socialist congresses in 1869 and 1871. When the First International's General Council, led by Marxists, suppressed the Bakuninists, the Jura Federation organized the Anarchist St. Imier International of the disaffected federations at the 1872 St. Imier Congress.

The 1872 St. Imier Congress disavowed the General Council's authoritarian consolidation of power and planning as an affront to the International's loose, federalist founding to support workers' emancipation. Members of the First International agreed and even state socialists joined the anti-statists' resulting Anti-authoritarian International; by 1876, the alliance had mostly dissolved. While in decline, the Jura Federation remained the home of Bakuninists whose figures engaged on a two-decade debate on the merits of propaganda of the deed. The egalitarian relations of the Jura Federation had played an important role in Peter Kropotkin's adoption of anarchism, who became the anarchist standard-bearer after Bakunin.