The term "redneck" in the early 20th century was occasionally used in reference to American coal miner union members who wore red bandanas for solidarity. The sense of "a union man" dates at least to the 1910s and was especially popular during the 1920s and 1930s in the coal-producing regions of West Virginia, Kentucky, and Pennsylvania. Patrick Huber, "Red Necks and Red Bandanas: Appalachian Coal Miners and the Coloring of Union Identity, 1912–1936", Western Folklore, Winter 2006.
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I'm citing this because the term redneck has been mostly reclaimed by conservative Americans, but it's important that the term was used by union members who fought the cops when they were sent to break up a strike. The origin of the word was used in a far more left-leaning sense than it is today.