diff --git a/pkgs/development/interpreters/guile/default.nix b/pkgs/development/interpreters/guile/default.nix
index cc49ab87af8..52d8d432032 100644
--- a/pkgs/development/interpreters/guile/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/development/interpreters/guile/default.nix
@@ -32,6 +32,10 @@
   patches = [ ./disable-gc-sensitive-tests.patch ] ++
     (stdenv.lib.optional (coverageAnalysis != null) ./gcov-file-name.patch);
 
+  # Explicitly link against libgcc_s, to work around the infamous
+  # "libgcc_s.so.1 must be installed for pthread_cancel to work".
+  LDFLAGS = "-lgcc_s";
+
   postInstall = ''
     wrapProgram $out/bin/guile-snarf --prefix PATH : "${gawk}/bin"