The march is advertised as being about ending mass immigration. Of course, there is no “correct” level of immigration to Australia – this will always be a democratic question that’s up for debate. But it’s equally clear that’s not what these protests are really about.

The media and anti-fascism activists have revealed that some of the organisers of the marches have posted white nationalist ideas like “remigration”, including pro-Nazi and pro-Hitler memes, and threatened violence. March for Australia has denied links to some prominent neo-Nazis.

While Australians firmly rejected the Coalition’s harsh anti-immigration rhetoric and policies under Peter Dutton’s leadership, scapegoating immigrants is a sadly effective tactic in politics and in the media.

More than one politician has voiced support for the March for Australia, including independent MP Bob Katter, who threatened to punch a journalist for mentioning his Lebanese heritage when questioning him about his support for the anti-immigration rallies.

These marches can be seen as part of a pattern of neo-Nazis and fascists becoming more and more emboldened in Australia and overseas, using anti-immigrant sentiment to bring heinous and extremist ideas like the mass deportation of non-white people into the mainstream.

The hateful, white supremacist language, the calls for violence, and talk of mass deportation Australians make it clear the March for Australia has a much more sinister agenda at its heart, and we only need look to the United States to see where this path leads.

It’s just eight years ago that neo-Nazis marched through Charlottesville in the United States with torches chanting “Jews will not replace us”, and where one white supremacist killed a counter-protestor by driving his car into a crowd of people.

President Donald Trump, then in his first term, responded by saying there were “very fine people on both sides“.

Now, Trump is using his second term to deploy masked secret police to disappear people from their homes, workplaces, schools and courthouses to deport people en masse without due process. There’s no doubt the far right is trying to take Australia down a similar path.

It was just a few years ago, ABC Background briefing uncovered a covert plot by Australia’s far-right movement to join major political parties to influence them from within, including a branch-stacking effort that saw dozens of alleged neo-Nazis and white supremacists join the Young Nationals in NSW.

Neo-Nazis felt comfortable enough to publicly boo the welcome to country at this year’s ANZAC Day dawn service.

They have marched through the streets of regional towns in Victoria and NSW, and down the CBD of Melbourne in masks at midnight, assaulting a counter-protestor.

After the Melbourne march, the neo-Nazi group NSN boasted a surge in membership, meaning it was on track to overtake the Liberal Party membership within 18 months.

And of course, we cannot forget it is just six years since an Australian white supremacist massacred 51 people and injured 80 others during Friday prayers at mosques in Christchurch.

Australia never bothered with much public introspection into how it produced this terrorist.

There have also been threats that violence will be used at the March for Australia. Sydney organiser “Bec Freedom” was confronted by 2GB host Ben Fordham with an audio clip of her saying “we need to see violence” at the march like during the 2005 Cronulla riots, one of the ugliest and most violent public displays of racism in modern Australian memory.

“We need violence, I’m sorry, but we need f—ing violence,” she is heard saying.

Freedom later apologised, but she was also recorded advising people on how to covertly introduce far-right ideas to make them sound more palatable to the mainstream.

“So, protect Australian heritage, culture, way of life. Next step, protect European culture, heritage, way of life. The next step is protect white heritage.”

“Protect white heritage” – it could not be more blatant that the far right is carefully using anti-immigration sentiment in the community to try to bring these white supremacist ideas into the mainstream, something Simon Copland, from the ANU school of sociology, warned should be a “red flag”.

“When you’ve got neo-Nazis signing up to your protest it might say something about what you’re doing and who you are.”

As always, police argue that the threat of violent protest warrants even greater police powers to crack down on protest, but this is not the answer.

The right to peacefully protest is fundamental to democracy. And there is no doubt that protest is effective. If it wasn’t, governments wouldn’t spend so much time trying to limit it and prohibit it.

A wave of draconian anti-protest laws have been enacted by governments across the country, not to deal with Nazis-but to crack down on animal welfare activists, climate protestors and now, pro-Palestine protestors.

While police went to court to stop anti-genocide, pro-Palestine rallies from proceeding in Sydney and Brisbane, it doesn’t appear they’ve tried similar tactics to stop the March for Australia, despite some of the organisers advocating violence.

Police already have extensive powers when it comes to managing protests, and when police so arbitrarily use their existing powers, giving them even greater powers to limit protest is not only unecessary, but unwise.

Several community groups are organising anti-fascist counter-protests this weekend, “to build an anti-racist, anti-fascist coalition that can stamp out the politics of the far right.”

Politicians from all sides of politics should be at the counter-protests this weekend to demonstrate that neo-Nazis and white supremacists have no place in mainstream Australian politics.

The best way to make Nazis ashamed again is a mass public demonstration that shows a majority of Australians – from all walks of life and all sides of politics – reject the politics of hate and white supremacy, unequivocally.