> Historically, if democratic institutions failed, refusing labor to a ruling class has been a first violent step for the laborer class and a preemption against actual physical violence if the ruling class overstepped.

Basically the ruling class's need for labor gave that labor some intrinsic power, but technology like AI will likely remove that need and therefore take the common people's power away.

> This leaves only physically violent uprising as a means of protesting overstep, and it is not obvious how effective that will be given the massive power imbalance between the labor class and ruling class.

Also things like gun control and new technology like cheap anti-personnel attack drones may undermine the effectiveness of violence against the ruling class, leaving regular people oppressed (or neglected) and helpless.