Now nobody can deny it. The United Patriots Front, the far right Islamophobic group that has been parading around the streets of Australia over the last year, is Nazi.

Leaks over the last few weeks have revealed internal Facebook and video correspondence between various members of the group. In them, formerly prominent members of the organisation have accused the current mini-Fuehrer of the group, Blair Cottrell, of loving Hitler.

Apparently Cottrell carries a well-thumbed copy of Mein Kampf with him and encourages all and sundry to read this “patriotic bible”. Why this fact should come as a shock to anyone either in or outside of the UPF is anyone’s guess.

When the far right is able to mobilise and express racism and bigotry openly, migrants, refugees and Muslims suffer.

It had been common knowledge (even the Age published an article about it last year) that Cottrell wants a picture of Hitler to hang in all schools. While such revelations seem to have created some divisions among the far right, for 300-plus flag fondlers in Bendigo on 27 February, being associated with a Nazi proved to be no problem.

The UPF called its third demonstration in Bendigo in the last year as part of an east coast tour to launch the new political party Fortitude. The first two legs of the tour, Toowoomba and Orange, were underwhelming, to say the least.

In Toowoomba the group could muster only 50 to a meeting in the local Bowls Hall, meaning, as anti-fascist commentator Slack Bastard said: “They were almost certainly outnumbered by the flags the UPF used for the occasion”.

Dreams of Nuremburg were also dashed in Orange, where only 40 pumped-up racists showed up.

Bendigo has proved more fertile ground and has revealed the UPF’s strengths. Building in a national climate of feverish hostility to Muslims, the fascists have latched on to a local racist campaign against a mosque and appear to have established a base in the town.

It is a worrying sign that, despite the internal tensions, despite the explicitly neo-Nazi posturing of some of the UPF’s leadership, the group could still manage a reasonably sized protest in a Victorian country town.

The group is desperate to make a return to Melbourne to build a Nazi street movement. It has called a protest in Federation Square for the weekend of 2-3 April.

While they were goose stepping alongside the broader racist movement of Reclaim Australia, the fascists mobilised hundreds in the city. But since Reclaim Australia has virtually imploded and counter-protests have made attendance by softer elements unpalatable, the hard core has been considerably reduced.

We want to keep it this way. When the far right is able to mobilise and express racism and bigotry openly, migrants, refugees and Muslims suffer. Racist and bigoted attitudes are allowed to flourish.

Counter-protests are a vital element of preventing the fascist movement gaining ground. This is why we need a big anti-racist, anti-fascist mobilisation in Melbourne in early April.