KENTFIELD, Calif. – Several dozen people here in Marin County braved a heavy downpour to join the nationwide demonstrations against the Republican-corporate assault against working people yesterday, March 15.

Chanting slogans denouncing corporate welfare and expressing solidarity with the embattled workers of Wisconsin, they were met with enthusiastic honks and waves from motorists passing the busy intersection where they stood, near the College of Marin, a community college threatened by disastrous state education budget cuts.

Marin is a suburban and rural county just north of San Francisco, with some of the most expensive housing prices in the country. Its predominantly middle-income residents are hard hit by the recession. Many working families bought houses at wildly inflated prices and are now saddled with mortgages far exceeding the current resale value of their homes.

Even in what is regarded as one of the most affluent counties in the United States, capitalism is taking its toll-and people are fighting back.