Peace March Founder Files for Bankruptcy

David B. Mixner, the man who started the Great Peace March, has filed for bankruptcy, listing more than $5 million in debts, and the original sponsoring group is expected to soon follow suit.

A hearing in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Los Angeles is scheduled Sept. 2 on Mixner’s petition for liquidation under Chapter 7. Mixner’s debts include bills for goods and services, unpaid salaries to staff and personal loans taken out to help finance the march.

According to Mixner’s attorney, Jean Berkowitz, PROPeace itself will be filing for bankruptcy “towards the end of the month.” Both suits, essentially, concern the same $5 million, she said, and were filed “so there would be no question they would be discharged.”

“We were being very cautious,” the attorney said.

Former staff and volunteers with PROPeace described themselves as stunned by the amount listed in the court papers, which were filed last month.

PROPeace collapsed on March 14 and pulled out from the march, then stranded in Barstow. Reorganized under a new corporation, a group of about 500 marchers is now in Indiana on their way to Washington.

On the day PROPeace collapsed in the desert, Mixner, a political organizer and consultant, took leave of the marchers, telling them:”Save me a place at the end of the line. Maybe I can catch up with you in Chicago. I should have cleared up the debt by then.”