You need to get people on board first, these small protests show people they arent alone in what they are feeling and that there are people in their area who would be there to help and support for larger events. It allows others to organize and share contact information and grow the movement. Considering almost all social media which has the saturation needed to even allow this to be done online are coopted and owned by the opposition, we need these slow burn style events to make people acclimated to doing this for one and also to help grow numbers to a point bigger more successful action can be effective. While media may misrepresent these as general strikes a more apt description is these a like recruitment drives.