After hesitation, communist wandered (5)
I believe the answer is:
erred
'wandered' is the definition.
(I've seen this in another clue)
'after hesitation communist' is the wordplay.
'after' says to put letters next to each other.
'hesitation' becomes 'er' (sound made while hesitating - um, er).
'communist' becomes 'red' (red can informally mean communist).
'er' put next to 'red' is 'ERRED'.
(Other definitions for erred that I've seen before include "Went wrong" , "Sinned" , "slipped up" , "Made a mistake, was wrong" , "was inaccurate" .)