diff --git a/IPython/kernel/threaded.py b/IPython/kernel/threaded.py
index 04528c9..2e4f286 100644
--- a/IPython/kernel/threaded.py
+++ b/IPython/kernel/threaded.py
@@ -1,5 +1,6 @@
 """ Defines a KernelClient that provides thread-safe sockets with async callbacks on message replies.
 """
+from __future__ import absolute_import
 import atexit
 import errno
 from threading import Thread