‘OWS protests to lead to US collapse’

An Iranian lawmaker says the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) protest movement will lead to the collapse of the United States.

The current trend [of anti-corporatism protests] shows that the United States will fall apart in the near future, a country which will – much like the former Soviet Union – disintegrate into smaller countries, Effat Shariati said on Thursday, Fars News Agency reported.

The lawmaker also noted that the process of the Islamic Awakening is nearly complete and the wave of awakening is now sweeping through non-Muslim nations in Europe and the United States.

The Occupy Wall street (OWS) movement began on September 17, 2011 in the financial district of New York City in protest to a number of issues including the US-led wars, the financial crisis in the US and high bonuses for Wall Street executives.

The campaign has spread to other major cities including Seattle, Los Angeles, Dallas, and Boston, as well as hundreds of communities across the US.

While the movement includes people from all walks of life, according to the group’s statement, “The one thing we all have in common is that we are the 99% that will no longer tolerate the greed and corruption of the 1%.”

Protesters use the slogan “We are the 99 percent” to draw attention to the fact that they are not part of the one percent of Americans in possession of most of the nation’s wealth.

Protesters have been pressured by authorities to vacate their camps in a number of cities including New York and Washington D.C., with police using pepper spray and batons to forcibly disperse them.