On the topic of punching or not punching Nazis and what's okay to do to stop them, probably the best known historical anecdote, the Battle of Cable Street.
Here's a slightly shortened version of the Wiki.
Quote:
The Battle of Cable Street took place on Sunday 4 October 1936 in Cable Street in the East End of London. It was a clash between the Metropolitan Police, protecting a march by members of the British Union of Fascists (BUF), and various anti-fascist demonstrators, including local Jewish, Irish, socialist, anarchist and communist groups. The majority of both marchers and counter-protesters travelled into the area for this purpose.
The Board of Deputies of British Jews denounced the march as anti-semitic and urged Jewish people to stay away. The Communist Party of Great Britain, led the opposition forces.
Despite the strong likelihood of violence, the government hesitated to ban the march and a large escort of police was provided in an attempt to prevent anti-fascist protesters from disrupting the march.
An estimated 20,000 anti-fascist demonstrators turned out, and were met by 6,000 police, who attempted to clear the road to permit the march of 2,000–3,000 fascists to proceed. The demonstrators fought back with sticks, rocks, chair legs and other improvised weapons. Rubbish, rotten vegetables and the contents of chamber pots were thrown at the police by women in houses along the street. After a series of running battles, Mosley agreed to abandon the march to prevent bloodshed. The BUF marchers were dispersed towards Hyde Park instead while the anti-fascists rioted with police. About 150 demonstrators were arrested, although some escaped with the help of other demonstrators. Several members of the police were arrested by demonstrators. Around 175 people were injured including police, women and children.
Many of the arrested demonstrators reported harsh treatment at the hands of the police.
After the Battle of Cable Street, the BUF lost momentum. It became clear that the local populace was largely against its actions, and that it would be met with fierce opposition.
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The Battle of Cable Street is pretty interesting, as I'm sure every possible argument against anti-fascists action currently thrown around could have been made back then, and back then you didn't have the historical perspective on Nazis we know have. The anti-fascists, lead by the far-left back then like they are now, were in the right then and they're in the right now.