"F--- Trump and Hanson too, we're going to fight them through and through." So chanted about 80 protesters on the Flinders Street station steps in an anti-Donald Trump rally that followed a string of largely student-led demonstrations across the US.

The crowd that included socialists, Latinos, feminists, LGBT people, anarchists and unionists - many of whom were university students - gathered for the rally on Saturday, which was organised by the Monash Student Association.

They waved banners reading "We wanted Bernie" and "#pussyfightsback", and circulated copies of the socialist magazine Red Flag, which had emblazoned on its front page: 'How could this monster win?'

About 15 police ringed the protesters, as they delivered impassioned speeches drawing similarities between US President-elect and the rise of the far-right in Australia, regularly citing Pauline Hanson and the Rise Up Australia group.