One's mixed up with revolutionary liberal breaking ranks (8)
I believe the answer is:
echelons
'ranks' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'one's mixed up with revolutionary liberal breaking' is the wordplay.
'mixed up' is an anagram indicator.
'with revolutionary' becomes 'che' (Che Guevara the Marxist revolutionary. I am not sure about the 'with' bit.).
'liberal' becomes 'l' (abbreviation).
'breaking' indicates putting letters inside.
'che'+'l'='chel'
'ones' with letters rearranged gives 'eons'.
'eons' enclosing 'chel' is 'ECHELONS'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for echelons that I've seen before include "Levels or ranks in an organization" , "Levels of rank, could be upper" , "Len chose levels or grades" , "Levels of authority" .)