An auto worker pickets outside the Detroit auto show in January 2009 in Detroit, Mich.   (Photo by Bill Pugliano/Getty Images)

By Lindsay Beyerstein

The United Auto Workers and Tea Party anti-tax protesters are vying for protest supremacy today at the annual Detroit auto show. Both groups are staging protests for the last full day of the show, which is today.

The tea partiers are protesting the federal government's 61% stake in General Motors, while the UAW is in favor of the government saving the American auto industry.

The auto workers scored an early victory, edging out the the National Tax Day Tea Party for a prime piece of protest real estate right outside the main conference hall. The tea partiers were scheduled to protest at 9:30. But when they hadn't gotten their act together by 9:40, the cops gave their spot to four UAW counter-protesters from Ypsilanti, Mich. By 10:00 am, the tea party still hadn't started, but police told the Cleveland Plain Dealer that a large anti-tax crowd was gathering outside of GM headquarters.

While the national leaders of the tea party movement are gung ho about protesting the GM bailout, many Michigan members aren't so sure. The government saving GM provides jobs! A leader of a tea party group in Michigan announced on Facebook over the weekend that her supporters would not be joining the national tea party group at the auto show, officially called the North American Auto Show.

Joan Fabiano, a retired GM employee and a leader in the local tea party movement, announced over the weekend that the national folks shouldn't count on local affiliates' support:

Why must some Americans boycott GM and throw INNOCENT people, such as myself, out on the street trying to find another job in this economy? Did I do something wrong? Would you like to see yourself out of a job if your company’s leadership made the errors and you had NOTHING to do with it?

Good point! Sometimes the government needs to step in to help people when the market fails.

Posted by Lindsay Beyerstein  · 

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