Our IBEW shared a photo:
the battle of blair mountain in west virginia was when a multi racial, multi gender coalition of miners and their families, unionized through UMW, took up arms against the US government, pinkertons and bosses in the biggest armed domestic conflict since the civil war. they wore red bandanas on their necks.
The term has its origins in the early 17th century and has oscillated in meaning from being a term to disparage working class and poor farmers to one of its earliest and most popular uses being its use by miners between 1912-1930’s. It was popularized largely after the events in Blair mountain which is the single largest labor insurrection in US history. Both uses are true. We should reclaim the term . There. Go bother someone else
sources:
https://www.jstor.org/stable/25474784…
https://www.google.com/…/redneck-pride-west-virginia-protes…
https://www.missedinhistory.com/…/battle-of-blair-mountain.…
The West Virginia mine wars, 1902-1922
https://soundcloud.com/workingclass…/west-virginia-mine-wars