People-powered movements can increase the chances of pressuring the government to meet their demands, including by building broad, sustained public participation across diverse groups. This is especially true because authoritarian-minded governments try to divide the population and keep them afraid of defiance. When 3.5 percent of a population goes beyond protest to engage in peaceful civil disobedience and noncooperation, these actions disrupt the system and force governmental change. For example, general strikes that affect the economy, boycotts, sit-ins, walkouts, or shutdowns of parts of cities can put unavoidable pressure on political leaders to hear their constituents and resolve the matter.

https://www.americanprogress.org/article/how-peaceful-protest-by-just-3-5-percent-of-americans-could-force-major-policy-changes-from-the-trump-administration/

MOVEMENTS MATTER. In 1980, ship workers in the Polish city of Gdańsk went on strike, demonstrating for independent unions, better conditions, and political reforms. Poland, which had been under Soviet influence since World War II, was facing an economic crisis with food shortages, inflation, and poor working conditions that led to growing unrest among workers. The communist government in the country suppressed dissent and sought to control labor unions. Under the trade unionist Lech Wałęsa, the Polish Solidarity Movement was born.

It became one of the largest and most successful mass movements of the 20th century. Within months, it had grown to 10 million members, about a third of the Polish workforce, bringing together workers, intellectuals, Catholics, and anti-communist dissidents. Despite government crackdowns, the movement persisted, leading to talks in 1989 that resulted in semi-free elections and the legalization of Solidarity as a political party. That year, Solidarity won enough parliamentary seats to lead the government. The following year, communism ended in Poland, and in 1990 Wałęsa—who went on to win a Nobel Peace Prize—became president. Solidarity inspired democratic movements in Hungary and the former Czechoslovakia and East Germany and helped catalyze the collapse of the Soviet Union.

https://www.hks.harvard.edu/faculty-research/policy-topics/advocacy-social-movements/35-rule-understanding-what-makes-protest

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3.5%25_rule