Born in Rhondda and educated at Pentre Higher Grade School, Powell became interested in politics while at Glamorgan Training College, Barry, in the 1920s.

It was while undertaking taking teacher training during the period of the 1926 General Strike that Annie Powell first became interested in politics and when she started teaching at Trebanog she witnessed the great degree of poverty faced by the schoolchildren and their families: "The poverty of the children hit me really hard".

After long consideration, she put aside her non-conformist religious background and joined the CPGB in 1938.

In 1960, she was a CPGB delegate at a major conference of Communist parties in Moscow, where she claimed to have impressed Nikita Khrushchev with her rendition of "Hen Wlad fy Nhadau", the national anthem of Wales.

In 1955, after thirteen attempts, Powell was elected as a Communist councillor for Penygraig, losing in 1957.