There are a few things you can do to try to make them glow.

1) finish{ ambient .9 } // or some high number around 1. try 2, even! This makes light from nowhere in particular strike the object.
2) pigment{ color rgb<3,.3,.3> } // Making a color value greater than 1 oversaturates the color. Makes it bright. Having some g and b lightens it more. Although this might look a bit too pink...
3) no_shadow // or something similar. this makes it cast no shadow. sticks of light don't cast a shadow!
4) use no_shadow and add a weak light_source or two inside the lightsaber. Then it'll cast faint light. For good results, you can mess with the attenuation of the light so they only shine a short distance.
5) To do it the "right way", you must use an interior{ media{ ... }} block. The documentation will tell you more, but a thick emission media inside a transparent cylinder will do wonders. Don't forget to make the cylinder hollow!! The problem with this approach is that it will render very slowly, and it's often hard to get a handle on media. The end result will be a rod of glowing gas (to make it cast light, you'd need #4 as well)

good luck!

Check it. Radiosity made it take close to an hour to render :/ And it isn't perfect. Meh, it's a try.