diff --git a/git-p4.py b/git-p4.py
index 2f177fb43b..153aff16f3 100755
--- a/git-p4.py
+++ b/git-p4.py
@@ -26,22 +26,6 @@ import zlib
 import ctypes
 import errno
 
-# support basestring in python3
-try:
-    unicode = unicode
-except NameError:
-    # 'unicode' is undefined, must be Python 3
-    str = str
-    unicode = str
-    bytes = bytes
-    basestring = (str,bytes)
-else:
-    # 'unicode' exists, must be Python 2
-    str = str
-    unicode = unicode
-    bytes = str
-    basestring = basestring
-
 verbose = False
 
 # Only labels/tags matching this will be imported/exported