Insisted Democrat worked on Southern rebels (10)
I believe the answer is:
dissidents
'rebels' is the definition.
'insisted democrat worked on southern' is the wordplay.
'democrat' becomes 'd'.
'worked' indicates an anagram.
'on' means one lot of letters goes inside another (as in clothing 'on' a person).
'southern' becomes 's' (abbreviation).
'insisted'+'d'='insistedd'
'insistedd' anagrammed gives 'disidents'.
'disidents' going around 's' is 'DISSIDENTS'.
(Another definition for dissidents that I've seen is " protesters".)
I've seen this clue in The Independent.
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