For a resistive plasma of stellarator or low‐temperature tokamak type, the quasistationary equilibrium is rotating at the reduced sound speedB&thgr;&ngr;th/Bz, and has a slow (acoustic branch) shock fixed in space. Dissipation in the shock can increase plasma loss by an order of magnitude over the Pfirsch‐Schlu¨ter rate. For a very weak shock, the loss rate scales with the resistivity as&eegr;4/3; for a stronger (but still weak) shock, it scales as&eegr;3/2. On the diffusion time scale, flow along the lines of force must develop.