The portion of the value newly created by the wage-laborer in the production process that exceeds the value of labor-power (denoted by the letter M). In the process of capitalist production, the labor of the wage-laborer is divided into the necessary labor, which produces the value of labor-power, and into the surplus-labor, which creates surplus-value and is appropriated by the capitalist without compensation. Therefore, as long as the capitalist lengthens the labor-time of the wage-laborer beyond the time required to compensate for the value of the labor-power, he is capable to obtain surplus-value. According to Marx’s example of the spinner, if a spinner works 6 hours a day to increase the value of cotton by 3 shillings, a value exactly equal to his wage, then if he works 12 hours, he increases the value of cotton by 6 shillings and produces a corresponding surplus of cotton yarn. Since the worker has sold his labor to the capitalist, all the value or product he has created belongs to the capitalist. The capitalist pays 3 shillings in advance but gets 6 shillings in value. The extra 3 shillings constitute the surplus-value, for which the capitalist does not pay any equivalent for it. Thus, “the capitalist production, which is essentially the production of surplus-value, is the absorption of surplus-labor.” Therefore, once the wage-laborer recognizes this law, the exploitative essence of surplus-value is fully exposed. As Marx pointed out, it is every bit as important, for a correct understanding of surplus-value, to conceive it as a mere congelation of surplus labor-time, as nothing but materialized surplus-labor…
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