COMMUNIST mayor Annie Powell was celebrated at the weekend as a blue paque was unveiled in her honour in the Rhondda Valley.

Rhondda Cynon Taf Mayor Councillor Sheryl Evans unveiled the plaque at the Soar Community Centre in the former mining village of Penygraig.

Members of the Pontypridd branch of the Communist Party were among a diverse audience at the ceremony.

Welsh Communist secretary Dominic MacAskill said: “Although internationally renowned as the communist mayor of the Rhondda, Annie Powell was first and foremost a communist activist, fiercely focused on improving the material condition of her beloved Rhondda community.

“Tackling the extreme levels of poverty and widespread slum housing, that ravaged this area, by overseeing major council house building projects and setting up alternative education and activity projects for young people.

“Annie Powell is a role model for anyone prepared to fight for a better world, and this blue plaque will ensure that she will continue to influence current and future generations to come.”

Having trained as a teacher, Powell became a political activist initially with the Labour Party, then with the Communist Party, as a local councillor.

In 1979, Powell was elected as mayor of the Rhondda, an honour she held until 1983, three years before her death.

The blue plaque was placed in the community centre home of the Valleys Kids charity, of which she was a trustee.

The commemoration was attended by local leaders, politicians and family members, who remembered her political and charity work, and there was a screening of past interviews with her.