SINN FÉIN is stepping up its opposition to the Lisbon Treaty with a series of weekly leaflet campaigns that will focus on areas in which, it said, Irish interests would be damaged if the treaty was endorsed.
Yesterday, the party began a national leaflet drive urging voters to reject the treaty on the grounds that a No vote would protect workers, who are now being "pitted against each other".
Next week, it will co-ordinate another leaflet push, at public centres, and door-to-door, concentrating on rural Ireland and the implications of the World Trade Organisation talks.
The party's "Defend Workers Rights - Vote No to Lisbon" initiative was launched in advance of May Day today, which is international workers day. The party's views are being spearheaded by MEP Mary Lou McDonald and Arthur Morgan TD.
Recent EU decisions, she said, marked a shift from the European social model and successive "surrendering of workers' rights by EU institutions at the behest of a weighty business lobby continues to leave millions of workers throughout Europe with decreasing employment security".