diff -r 4b101df1e9f7 Lib/site.py
--- a/Lib/site.py	Wed Apr 25 19:55:30 2012 +0200
+++ b/Lib/site.py	Fri Apr 27 08:52:20 2012 +0200
@@ -560,7 +560,31 @@
     if hasattr(sys, "setdefaultencoding"):
         del sys.setdefaultencoding
 
-main()
+try:
+    unicode
+except NameError:
+    # If Python is built with no unicode support, we need to patch a
+    # few modules where unicode is used only in isinstance clauses.
+    class unicode(object):
+        def __new__(cls, *args, **kw):
+            # Make sure that you cannot instantiate instances
+            raise TypeError("No unicode support")
+    # We do not want to pollute the __builtin__ names space, so we
+    # inject this unicode class directly into the modules that need it
+    def _patch_modules(*modnames):
+        for n in modnames:
+            try:
+                __import__(n)
+                m = sys.modules[n]
+            except ImportError:
+                pass
+            else:
+                setattr(m, 'unicode', unicode)
+    _patch_modules('posixpath', 'glob')
+    main()
+    _patch_modules('locale', 'textwrap', 'unittest.case')
+else:
+    main()
 
 def _script():
     help = """\
diff -r 4b101df1e9f7 Lib/test/script_helper.py
--- a/Lib/test/script_helper.py	Wed Apr 25 19:55:30 2012 +0200
+++ b/Lib/test/script_helper.py	Fri Apr 27 08:52:20 2012 +0200
@@ -10,7 +10,10 @@
 import py_compile
 import contextlib
 import shutil
-import zipfile
+try:
+    import zipfile
+except:
+    pass
 
 from test.test_support import strip_python_stderr
 
diff -r 4b101df1e9f7 Lib/test/test_support.py
--- a/Lib/test/test_support.py	Wed Apr 25 19:55:30 2012 +0200
+++ b/Lib/test/test_support.py	Fri Apr 27 08:52:20 2012 +0200
@@ -405,7 +405,7 @@
     the CWD, an error is raised.  If it's True, only a warning is raised
     and the original CWD is used.
     """
-    if isinstance(name, unicode):
+    if have_unicode and isinstance(name, unicode):
         try:
             name = name.encode(sys.getfilesystemencoding() or 'ascii')
         except UnicodeEncodeError:
diff -r 4b101df1e9f7 Misc/ACKS
--- a/Misc/ACKS	Wed Apr 25 19:55:30 2012 +0200
+++ b/Misc/ACKS	Fri Apr 27 08:52:20 2012 +0200
@@ -833,6 +833,7 @@
 Geoff Talvola
 William Tanksley
 Christian Tanzer
+Stefano Taschini
 Steven Taschuk
 Monty Taylor
 Amy Taylor
diff -r 4b101df1e9f7 Objects/object.c
--- a/Objects/object.c	Wed Apr 25 19:55:30 2012 +0200
+++ b/Objects/object.c	Fri Apr 27 08:52:20 2012 +0200
@@ -2111,8 +2111,10 @@
     if (PyType_Ready(&PySet_Type) < 0)
         Py_FatalError("Can't initialize set type");
 
+#ifdef Py_USING_UNICODE
     if (PyType_Ready(&PyUnicode_Type) < 0)
         Py_FatalError("Can't initialize unicode type");
+#endif
 
     if (PyType_Ready(&PySlice_Type) < 0)
         Py_FatalError("Can't initialize slice type");
diff -r 4b101df1e9f7 Python/bltinmodule.c
--- a/Python/bltinmodule.c	Wed Apr 25 19:55:30 2012 +0200
+++ b/Python/bltinmodule.c	Fri Apr 27 08:52:20 2012 +0200
@@ -1578,6 +1578,7 @@
             Py_CLEAR(str_newline);
             return NULL;
         }
+#ifdef Py_USING_UNICODE
         unicode_newline = PyUnicode_FromString("\n");
         if (unicode_newline == NULL) {
             Py_CLEAR(str_newline);
@@ -1591,6 +1592,7 @@
             Py_CLEAR(unicode_space);
             return NULL;
         }
+#endif
     }
     if (!PyArg_ParseTupleAndKeywords(dummy_args, kwds, "|OOO:print",
                                      kwlist, &sep, &end, &file))
diff -r 4b101df1e9f7 Python/peephole.c
--- a/Python/peephole.c	Wed Apr 25 19:55:30 2012 +0200
+++ b/Python/peephole.c	Fri Apr 27 08:52:20 2012 +0200
@@ -135,6 +135,7 @@
                will return a surrogate.  In both the cases skip the
                optimization in order to produce compatible pycs.
              */
+#ifdef Py_USING_UNICODE
             if (newconst != NULL &&
                 PyUnicode_Check(v) && PyUnicode_Check(newconst)) {
                 Py_UNICODE ch = PyUnicode_AS_UNICODE(newconst)[0];
@@ -147,6 +148,7 @@
                     return 0;
                 }
             }
+#endif
             break;
         case BINARY_LSHIFT:
             newconst = PyNumber_Lshift(v, w);
diff -r 4b101df1e9f7 configure
--- a/configure	Wed Apr 25 19:55:30 2012 +0200
+++ b/configure	Fri Apr 27 08:52:20 2012 +0200
@@ -12522,6 +12522,7 @@
       $as_echo "#define Py_UNICODE_SIZE 4" >>confdefs.h
 
       ;;
+no)   ;;      # To allow --disable-unicode
 *) as_fn_error $? "invalid value for --enable-unicode. Use either ucs2 or ucs4 (lowercase)." "$LINENO" 5 ;;
 esac
 
diff -r 4b101df1e9f7 configure.ac
--- a/configure.ac	Wed Apr 25 19:55:30 2012 +0200
+++ b/configure.ac	Fri Apr 27 08:52:20 2012 +0200
@@ -3776,6 +3776,7 @@
 ucs4) unicode_size="4"
       AC_DEFINE(Py_UNICODE_SIZE,4)
       ;;
+no)   ;;      # To allow --disable-unicode
 *) AC_MSG_ERROR([invalid value for --enable-unicode. Use either ucs2 or ucs4 (lowercase).]) ;;
 esac