Associations formed with canaille shaky at first (9)
I believe the answer is:
alliances
'associations' is the definition.
(an alliance is an association)
'formed with canaille shaky at first' is the wordplay.
'formed' is an anagram indicator.
'with' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other).
'at first' says to take the initial letters.
The first letter of 'shaky' is 's'.
'canaille'+'s' is 'canailles'.
'canailles' with letters rearranged gives 'ALLIANCES'.
(Other definitions for alliances that I've seen before include "Unions, associations" , "The court of the papel see" , "partnerships" .)