diff --git a/pusherclient/__init__.py b/pusherclient/__init__.py
index <HASH>..<HASH> 100755
--- a/pusherclient/__init__.py
+++ b/pusherclient/__init__.py
@@ -1,11 +1,15 @@
 from channel import Channel
 from connection import Connection
 import hashlib
-import thread
 import hmac
 import logging
 
 try:
+    import thread
+except:
+    import _thread as thread
+
+try:
     import simplejson as json
 except:
     import json
Thread module is obsolete in Python 3, should use _thread